Advocates Warn Delaying Fed Climate Bill Drives Up Costs

Global warming gas reductions would have to be doubled if the pending federal climate change bill is postponed, warned witnesses during a November 15 U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. “The problem is getting worse everyday and to put off addressing it will make it harder and more costly,” said Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), co-author of the bill to reduce carbon emissions, during the final hearing on S 2191 prior to mark up. “We have a moral and practical responsibility to avert a problem that could be a disaster for our grandchildren,” he added. If the bill passes this session, annual greenhouse gas emissions reductions must be cut 2 percent a year beginning in 2012 to reach the legislation’s 15 percent reduction target by 2020, according to Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense executive director. Waiting another two years for enactment will require annual carbon emission cuts of 4.3 percent, Krupp warned. “The sooner we send a signal to the power sector and financial sector the better,” added Lieberman. Midwestern lawmakers continued to spar with the “blue state” senators during the November 15 hearing as well as one held November 13 over the bill’s costs and economic impacts, particularly to coal producing regions. Placing a mandatory cap on carbon will give China and India, which are heavily dependent on coal, an international economic leg up because S 2191 will drive up the price of power, insisted Senator John Barraso (R-WY). He added that passing the bill would sacrifice U.S. leverage on damping down emissions across the globe. “We are staring down the barrel of a gun--a double barreled one--our competitive position in the global market place and the other climate change,” claimed Senator George Voinovich (R-OH). Krupp countered that the quicker the U.S. enacts mandatory climate change legislation “the faster China will act.” Bill opponents urged that S 2191’s passage be postponed to allow more time to study its impacts on the jobs and the economy. Midwestern senators asserted the way to achieve carbon reductions is through developing clean technology and not a legislative mandate. “The worst thing we can do for the economy is not to act. The second worst thing we can do is delay,” responded Krupp. Other senators worried that the so-called Climate Change Security Act of 2007, also co-authored by John Warner (R-VA), would hurt blue collar workers and manufacturing because it would require carbon reductions, as well as trading in credits. Coal state lawmakers fear the bill would stop coal plant development by requiring carbon sequestration. Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and other blue state senators maintain that the bill would create jobs rather than destroy them. “All this doom and gloom is belied by facts. Great Britain reduced its carbon by 15 percent and increased its economy,” retorted Boxer during a November 13 committee hearing. One issue became clear, however. A cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases is in and a tax on carbon is out. “A carbon tax is dead on arrival,” said Boxer at the November 13 hearing, because it would harm low-income citizens. In an unusual twist during the November 15 hearing, Boxer called for market-based carbon reductions, while Senator James Inohfe (R-OK) asserted a carbon tax is the way to go. “It is a more honest approach,” he said. Kevin Book, an energy analyst with FBR Capitol, noted that a carbon tax is less complicated, has lower administrative costs, and would achieve larger global warming cuts. He acknowledged that low-income people would be hit harder by a tax because they generally commute farther to their jobs and live in areas fueled by coal-fired power plants.

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Advocates Warn Delaying Fed Climate Bill Drives Up Costs

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