Posted on 01/07/2003 6:12:26 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats joined by a maverick Republican, Sen. John McCain, sought at the opening of the 108th Congress to make global warming a battleground issue with the Bush administration for the next two years as they readied competing legislative proposals.
McCain, the incoming Commerce chairman, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., proposed requiring a huge swath of U.S. industry to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other warming gases back to 2000 levels by 2010, and to 1990 levels by 2016.
Their bill would affect power plants, manufacturers, petroleum refiners and other large-scale commercial sources, and also set up a trading system similar to one created to fight acid rain, a Lieberman aide said.
Utilities and plants that cannot meet the targets could instead pay for the emissions reductions of companies that exceed the targets.
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., the outgoing Environment chairman, proposed similar strategies but also would require climate change to be considered as part of environmental reviews for all federal projects. They also want a new commission to study how best to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
"We don't have decades to clear our skies of pollution or to start addressing global warming," Jeffords said. "The time is now. Unfortunately, at this time what seems to be lacking is real leadership from the White House."
Unless the bills go through McCain's committee, they are unlikely to gain traction in the committee that has jurisdiction over the Environmental Protection Agency, according to congressional aides.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who succeeds Jeffords in the Environment chairmanship, has no interest in such legislation, said his spokesman, Gary Hoitsma.
"We're going to be more supportive of the Bush administration's approach to this issue which is not to move toward a mandatory regulatory regime," Hoitsma said. "I can't see the committee under Inhofe's leadership moving a bill that the president's not going to sign."
Many scientists believe that the burning of fossil fuels is causing an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, triggering what is called the greenhouse effect. A higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would trap more of the sun's heat, possibly causing temperatures to rise.
Environmental groups praised senators for helping jump-start the debate over global climate change.
"It's encouraging to see real action on the environment by senior statesmen so early in the new Congress," said Katherine Silverthorne, deputy director of World Wildlife Fund's U.S. climate change program, who praised the McCain-Lieberman bill.
McCain's committee planned to hear Wednesday from James R. Mahoney, the assistant commerce secretary who directs U.S. climate research efforts.
Bush has advocated voluntary measures for industry to cut smokestack and tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide and other warming gases. His plan for slowing the rate of growth in heat-trapping gas emissions calls for increased federal spending on science and technology and for industry to reduce air pollution.
Shortly after taking office, Bush rejected an international treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 mandating reduction of heat-trapping gases by industrial nations.
He will continue to be a huge thorn in President Bush's side. Personally, I cannot stand him!
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