On August 2, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA), both members of the Senate Environment and Public Work (EPW) Committee, announced details of their climate change proposal, titled the "America's Climate Security Act of 2007." The bill, expected to be introduced in the Fall, calls for a 70 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2050 by implementing an economy-wide, cap-and-trade program. The draft proposal, comprised of various provisions from a number of climate bills, would initially require electric utilities, major industrial manufacturers and petroleum refiners and importers to limit their emissions to 2005 levels beginning in 2012. Those sources must then cut their greenhouse gases by ten percent by 2020, with an end target of a 70 percent reduction in 2050.
Senior Senate Democrats and some environmental groups welcomed the proposal to the well-underway climate debate on Capitol Hill. "This proposal has taken good ideas from a variety of bills and will be an excellent starting point for the committee," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the EPW Committee.
In addition, to setting up a cap-and-trade program, the Lieberman-Warner proposal also set up a mandatory greenhouse gas registry, and create an emissions monitoring system for regulated industries, within two years, to be administered by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Moreover, to control the costs of the new program, the proposal would set up a seven-member Carbon Market Efficiency Board with the task of tracking the cap-and-trade system, much like the Federal Reserve monitors the U.S. economy. The Board would track prices for carbon dioxide in the emerging U.S. market and would allow industry a flexible option if compliance prices stay too high for too long.
Also included are provisions from Sens. Jeff Bingaman's (D-NM) and Arlen Specter's (R-PA) legislation (described below), which seeks to bring along China and India. Under the Lieberman-Warner plan, U.S. trading partners must purchase pollution credits for their carbon-intensive exports if they do not have sufficient global warming policies in place. The President of the United States would have to impose trade restrictions on trading nations, within eight years of the start of the U.S. program, if such policies were not implemented.
On another key point, the Lieberman-Warner plan would allow industry to meet up to 15 percent of its emission requirements through the purchase of carbon offsets, such as implementation of environmentally sound farming and forestry practices and methane capture.
Below are the links to a press released sent out by Sen. Lieberman's office and a detailed outline of the bill, which has not yet been released.
http://lieberman.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=280310
http://lieberman.senate.gov/documents/acsa.pdf