U.S. Must Take Lead in Efforts to Stem the Threat of Global Warming, EPA Says

The United States must take major steps to cut energy consumption--including more efficient automobiles and home heating systems--if expected global warming problems are to be eased, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday.

In a report to a Senate environmental subcommittee, the EPA outlined actions that are needed by the end of the century if the movement toward a dangerously warmer Earth is to be slowed.

While the report said the United States should take the lead in meeting the global warming, or “greenhouse,” problem head-on, EPA Administrator William K. Reilly emphasized that the problem is international in scope.

“The response to this problem cannot be a unilateral one,” Reilly told the Senate subcommittee on environmental protection, adding that if there is not international cooperation, U.S. actions could be “canceled out by other countries.”

But Reilly said the United States “is going to have to lead by example” and that President Bush has made clear he intends to take a leadership role.

The recommendations outlined in the EPA report will be used by the Administration and Congress in assessing what kinds of regulatory action or legislation might be needed on global warming.

The EPA report, concluding two years of study, acknowledged that there remains considerable uncertainty about the magnitude of global warming. But it said there is a “growing consensus” in the scientific community that if nothing is done to reduce the discharge of pollutants into the atmosphere, the Earth can be expected to become 4 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit warmer over the next century.

The scientific consensus has been that pollution is causing a “greenhouse effect” by trapping the sun’s infrared radiation instead of allowing it to go back into space. The major contributors to the warming process are carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, methane and nitrous oxides.

To curtail energy use, the report proposed:

- Increasing average automobile fuel economy to 40 m.p.g. by the year 2000.

- Taking measures to make new single-family homes more energy efficient.

- Setting fees on carbon emissions ranging from 7% to 20% on natural gas, oil and coal.

The report also called for an end to the use of chlorofluorocarbons by all industrialized countries over the next 14 years and action to sharply curtail the chemical’s use by developing countries.