8/28/07

SENATE GLOBAL WARMING BILL IS JUST ENOUGH

Global warming bills have been sprouting up in Congress like mushrooms after a heavy rain.

But are they really strong enough to get the job done– that is, will they reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly enough to help us avoid the worst effects of accelerating climate change?

At least three of the bills currently being offered have provisions strong enough to gain some ground against the problem. And of these, two bills– one in the House of Representatives, and one in the Senate– are the strongest.

Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309) in the Senate this past January. The measure has 19 co-sponsors. Currently it is in the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works.

The Safe Climate Act of 2007 (H.R. 1590) was introduced in the House this March by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA). His bill is virtually identical to S. 309. It has garnered 140 co-sponsors in the House.

The planet is heating up, and the overwhelming scientific consensus is that human beings and their burning of fossil fuels are the cause.

This issue directly concerns forests. Forests both temperate and tropical that serve as carbon sinks are being destroyed. When California forests are clearcut, for example, their ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it is lost. Soils exposed by logging emit huge amounts of stored CO2 as well.

Higher average temperatures, rising sea levels, stronger and more frequent hurricanes, melting glaciers– the signs that global climate is rapidly changing are increasing steadily.

Yet, since 1990 U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases have risen by 15.8 percent.

But merely lowering greenhouse gas emissions somewhat may not be enough to avoid the worst effects of global warming. An emerging scientific consensus holds that to keep average temperatures from rising catastrophically, the world must reduce emissions by at least 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.

The bills sponsored by Boxer, Sanders and Waxman would go a little further than that. They would enforce reductions in human-caused emissions if greenhouse gases of two percent a year, beginning in 2010, to ensure that global average temperatures will not increase by more than 3.6 degrees F. They would have as a key objective limiting the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide-– the gas primarily responsible for global warming– to 450 parts per million.

These bills would accomplish this by limiting greenhouse gas emissions in the United States– from cars, trucks, buses, electric power plants, and any industry that pumps these gases into the atmosphere. The ultimate goal of the legislation is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in this country by 83 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050.

S. 309 and H.R. 1590 both encourage the development of new technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as “geologic sequestration” of carbon dioxide (capturing and storing CO2 underground). Important in helping to fight global warming, these new technologies can also provide new jobs for the economy.

The bills also promote a cap-and-trade policy, which sets a limit on the amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted without penalty, awards credits to polluters that stay under this limit, and allows them to sell their unused credits, thus creating a market.

These policies may not be the best way to curtail greenhouse gas emissions in the long run.

Government could create more credits in response to industry pressure, for instance, resulting in credit inflation and reduced effectiveness.

There are many other potential problems with such schemes. But there is no question that as a way of getting industry to buy in to emissions reduction, they are useful in the short term.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

In her opening statement at the Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on global warming, committee chair Sen. Boxer said:

“There are some moments in human history when individuals have the ability to make a difference.”

This is one of those moments. You can make a difference.

The Global Warming Reduction Act has 19 co-sponsors in the Senate. Now you as a private citizen can also become a co-sponsor of the bill. So far more than 60,000 people have signed on.

Follow this link and sign on as a co-sponsor of the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309).

You can read the complete text of the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act here.

The Safe Climate Act of 2007 has 140 co-sponsors in the House– see a list of co-sponsors here.

If your representative is not already a co-sponsor, write and urge that he or she sign on to H.R. 1590.
You can read the complete text of the Safe Climate Act of 2007 here.