On November 1, the Senate Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection approved S. 2191, the America's Climate Security Act of 2007, by a vote of 4-3 and sent it to the full Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) for consideration. The bill is cosponsored by Subcommittee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. John Warner (R-VA).
Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) voted with the bill's sponsors in supporting S. 2191. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), John Barrasso (R-WY) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA) voted against the measure.
The Lieberman-Warner bill establishes a federal program to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 63% by 2050. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cap targets electric power, transportation and manufacturing sources that account for 75% of GHG emissions. The cap on emissions starts in 2012 (based on 2005 emission levels) and then lowers it gradually, so that it reaches 19% below 2005 emission levels in 2020 and then reduces to 63% below 2005 emissions levels by 2050.
The Act allows companies to trade, save and borrow emission allowances and allows them to generate credits when they stimulate non-covered businesses, farms and others to reduce their GHG or capture and store the emissions. The bill allocates only 19% of available allowances to electric utilities. The rest are allocated to states, to entities that take "early action" to reduce emissions and to a range of other activities that the bill's sponsors want to promote. Of that 19%, six percent is allocated to load-serving entities based on their retail sales.
During the markup, Sen. Sanders offered many amendments which would have made the bill more stringent, but only one was approved. That amendment provided that, if the automobile industry received funding for advanced technology vehicles, it would be required to produce cars get a fuel efficiency level of 35 miles per gallon. Another Sanders amendment, voted down, would have increased required cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent by 2050. Both Sanders and Lautenberg asked for stronger targets, citing scientific recommendations that included the warnings of dramatic climate change if those recommendations are not followed.
Senate EPW Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said that the legislation will be the "strongest...in the world" and that its "reach is enormous." Two full committee hearings will be held on the legislation, the first of which is scheduled for November 8, and the second on November 13. A markup has not yet been planned, but Boxer has said that she would like to move the bill to the Senate floor for a vote before the United Nations climate discussions in Bali, Indonesia, in early December.
In contrast, in the House, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) announced that they would not begin consideration of climate change legislation until the energy bill conference was completed.