Monday, November 05, 2007

America's Climate Security Act

Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn), left, and Senator John Warner (R-VA), right) have introduced America's Climate Security Act (S. 2191) to address global warming. The bill directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a program to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases. It specifies an annual tonnage cap, expressed in terms of Co2 equivalence, for each year from 2012 through 2050.

The cap for 2012 will be the 2005 emissions level, 10% below 2005 by 2020, 30% by 2030, 50% by 2030, 70% by 2050. The Lieberman-Warner bill covers the electric power, transportation and manufacturing sectors, which account for 75 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Other provisions include:

*** 24% in 2012 will go to auction through the Climate Change Credit Corporation; rising to 52% by 2035.

*** Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) regulations and a legal framework for the Federal assumption of liability for geological storage will be proposed by a study group within two years of enactment.

*** The bill will set forth detailed, rigorous requirements for offsets, with the purpose of ensuring that they will represent real, additional, verifiable, and permanent emissions reductions.

AAEA supports the bill with caveats. We do not support auctioning the credits. (Hill Heat)

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