A new global warming bill introduced in the House on Tuesday, June 20, calls for bold cuts in heat-trapping emissions on the scale needed to solve the global warming problem.
The Safe Climate Act, introduced by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and co-sponsored by 14 fellow House members, would set targets for greenhouse gas reductions and require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy to establish national standards that will freeze greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 at the 2009 levels.
Beginning in 2011, emissions would be cut by roughly 2 percent a year until 2020. After 2020, the reduction targets would increase to 5 percent each year until 2050, when emissions would be reduced from 1990 levels by 80 percent. This is a similar goal to that announced by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The bill would allow a cap and trade program to create an overall reduction in emissions as well as require specific increases in electricity generated by renewable energy sources and use of energy efficiency technology. It would also require the EPA to set new fuel economy standards for automobiles that are at least as stringent as California standards, which are some of the toughest in the nation. Finally, it would require a periodic review by the National Academy of Sciences to gauge the country’s progress toward curbing the production of greenhouse pollutants and avoiding dangerous climate change.
Senator Waxman states, “The Safe Climate Act reduces emissions through a flexible, market-based emissions trading program, as well as complementary requirements for cleaner cars and more electricity from renewable energy and efficiency. In effect, the Safe Climate Act sets the targets and then unleashes market forces and American ingenuity to solve the problem. This sounds ambitious, and it is. But it is also completely doable, once we decide to act. Look at what we’ve already achieved. In just over 30 years, from the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970 to 2002, we reduced air pollution from automobiles by over 60%. We achieved these reductions even as the total number of vehicle miles traveled increased by 160% and GDP grew by 166%. We’ve ignored the threat of global warming for almost too long, but we still have an opportunity if we act now. ”
Senators James Jeffords (I-Vt.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) are expected to introduce a similar bill in the Senate in the near future.
“This is the year of new ideas on global warming, and these new legislative proposals are an important step forward to meet the global warming challenge,” said David Doniger, policy director for the Climate Center at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “These forward-thinking legislators are heeding the science, which tells us that we must start cutting heat-trapping pollution now and reduce it to a fraction of current levels by mid-century.”
A copy of the bill can be viewed at the following website:
Loading...