Living Green

Dogett announces new global warming legislation

WASHINGTON — After a failed Senate attempt to push through climate change initiatives, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, introduced a measure Tuesday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fund clean technologies.

Standing beside leading scientists, economists and environmentalists, Doggett told reporters that the United States will need to combat climate change to stay ahead in the global economy.

"America can run the new green energy economy or get run over by it," Doggett said. "We can wait and pay dearly to import this technology from abroad, or we can lead with what will become major tech exports of American products."

Doggett's measure, called the Climate MATTERS Act, would cap the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that businesses could produce and give credits to businesses that take steps to reduce emissions. These credits could then be auctioned on the global market to produce revenue and create economic incentives to fight global warming.

Doggett does not expect the bill to be passed any time soon though, referencing the failed attempt in the Senate and President Bush's unwillingness to support many previous climate change initiatives, including the Kyoto Protocol. Doggett said Congress will probably not pass any climate change bills the rest of this year, but the bill could be ready for the beginning of next year.

"We want to be close on having the legislation perfected next year when a new president takes office," Doggett said.

Both presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have shown strong support for "cap-and-trade" initiatives.

Doggett said the plan is designed to reduce U.S. emissions by 80 percent from the 1990 level by 2050, and by 2020, all emissions credits would be auctioned. The bill that failed in the Senate proposed cutting emissions by more than two-thirds by 2050 and also would have set up credits that could be traded on the market.

He did not specify a percentage but said that much of the revenue raised by the system would go to investing in clean energy technology and renewable resources, especially within the transportation industry, which produces nearly one-third of the greenhouse emissions.

Revenue from the cap-and-trade system would also be used to fund various consumer and worker assistance programs, including a "Healthy Families Fund," which would provide assistance to families who have trouble paying for health care. This fund, which would receive about 2 percent of the revenue, sets it apart from the several competing cap-and-trade bills that have been introduced in the House.

Michael Webber, associate director for the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas, said cap-and-trade systems are usually effective on paper, but the only place to implement the system, Europe, has experienced some failures. He said Europe allocated more credits to larger companies, which in turn made a profit off the credits without cutting emissions to necessary levels.

"It doesn't work like magic," Webber said. "You have to be careful with the credits."

Webber said the United States will need to implement some sort of emission reduction legislation within the next 18 months to reverse the damage of global warming.

Reps. Earl Blumenauer D-Ore., and Chris Van Hollen D-Md., co-sponsored the bill and several Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee have voiced support for it, but Doggett said he has yet to find a Republican congressman to support it.

A group of 12 environmental and conservation groups, including Greenpeace, the National Audubon Society and the Sierra Club, issued a joint statement voicing their support of Doggett's bill.