http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19332/story.htm
Senate bill aims to cut US emissions USA: January 9, 2003 WASHINGTON - Republican John McCain and Democrat Joseph Lieberman will introduce Senate legislation yesterday that would slash emissions spewed by U.S. utilities and industrial plants that are linked to global warming. The bipartisan legislation comes amid data showing that 2002 was the second-warmest year on record. The bill was likely to be opposed by the Bush administration, which rejected U.S. participation in the Kyoto treaty to reduce heat-trapping emissions because it would be too costly to the U.S. economy. The White House contends more study is needed to determine the causes of global warming. The United States is the world's biggest energy consumer and also largest producer of global warming emissions. The McCain-Lieberman bill would set a nationwide cap to limit pollution from the electricity, industrial, commercial and transportation fuel sectors, which together are responsible for nearly 80 percent of U.S. emissions. Starting in 2010, emissions from these sectors would be capped at 2000 levels, according to the bill. In 2016, the cap would be reduced to 1990 levels, which is the target level in a climate treaty signed by the first President George Bush and ratified by the Senate in 1992. U.S. companies would have to reduce their own emissions, or purchase polluting credits from other firms. Such an emissions trading market is similar to an approach taken by Congress a decade ago to curb acid rain. Environmental groups praised the legislation. "McCain and Lieberman are pressing forward with real, market-based solutions even as the White House continues giving the biggest polluters a free pass," said David Doniger, climate center policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Senate Commerce Committee, which is chaired by McCain, will hold a global warming hearing Wednesday on the bill. "Up until now the climate policy has been hypothetical. The debate will now have at the center of it a specific proposal with a comprehensive trading system and a target for reductions," said Joseph Goffman, a senior attorney with Environmental Defense. It remained unclear whether similar legislation would be offered in the House, which is also controlled by Republicans. Story by Tom Doggett REUTERS NEWS SERVICE Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
