Clinton Unveils First Phase of Fast Action Global Warming Plan : The 44-point voluntary proposal aims at cutting the release of carbon-related gases 109 million tons annually by the year 2000.

In moving ahead Tuesday with a largely voluntary plan to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, President Clinton may not have been spared the criticism of environmentalists, who called his plan a weak first step. But he could at least bypass the delay and partisanship of the congressional approval process.

“This plan isn’t designed for an archive,” Clinton said. “It’s designed for action, for rapid implementation, constant monitoring and for adjustments as necessary to meet our goals.”

The 44-point Administration plan to combat global warming aims at cutting the release of carbon-related gases 109 million tons annually by the year 2000. To do so, it relies almost exclusively on mutual agreements that would make businesses and the federal government partners in conserving energy.

That marks a significant step away from what government regulators call “command and control measures,” which governments have traditionally used to battle pollution.

Clinton accepted the recommendations after industry representatives warned him that mandatory programs would burden the nation’s struggling economy, hobbling businesses as they strive to create jobs at home and to compete for markets abroad.

Environmentalists have been critical of the plan’s heavy reliance on voluntary measures, warning that when industries face economic hardships, their voluntary commitments will fall by the wayside and the environment will suffer.

But Administration officials insist that the voluntary measures will get the job done and work faster than “command and control” measures because, as cooperative agreements between industries and the federal government, they do not need to be approved by Congress.

Moreover, Clinton argued that the largely voluntary plan would energize businesses to improvise new and better energy-conservation technologies, creating “a new high-skilled, high-wage job base in America.”

The release of the Administration’s “Climate Change Action Plan” marks a dramatic reversal from previous Republican administrations, which had been skeptical of scientific claims concerning the dangers of such compounds as carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere.

For several years, scientists have warned that the build-up could create a “greenhouse effect,” raising temperatures on Earth and disrupting long-established patterns of weather, agriculture and wildlife.

Already this year, Congress has spurned several Clinton environmental initiatives, including a broad energy tax that was to have been the centerpiece of the greenhouse gas initiative.

Administration officials said that in drafting the plan, they were not eager to rile Congress again with such controversial proposals as new automobile efficiency standards or energy taxes. And lawmakers, overburdened already with health care reform and a controversial North American Free Trade Agreement, appeared happy not to have to weigh in on the greenhouse-gas program.

Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Tuessday that Congress would not be likely to rouse itself to object to any of the proposal’s provisions.

Clinton aides and industrialists, meanwhile, touted the benefits of voluntary measures that give industries the incentive to be innovative and the flexibility to find the lowest-cost ways to conserve energy.

“We have argued since 1990 that (Washington) should let us do this voluntarily rather than have the government come down on us and force us to do something that would be less efficient and maybe not as effective,” said Daniel Waters, executive director of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipally owned water and power company. “We all recognize that if we don’t do something on a voluntary basis, in a couple years, we are going to get something under a control.”

Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary, who called Clinton’s plan “ingenious,” cautioned that government-mandated energy policies are “often not done artfully.”

“Voluntary is not a dirty word,” she said. “Voluntary means no huge new bureaucracy. . . . Voluntary is an agreement between consenting adults.”

How global warming occurs:

1) Heat is trapped by a barrier created from emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons by cars, factories, forest fires and other sources.

2) Although sunlight is able to pass through the barrier and warm the Earth, the resulting heat is unable to escape back to space.

3) The resulting “greenhouse” warming will shift prime agricultural regions northward, raise ocean levels, change and alter habitats.

What the President wants to do:

RESIDENTIAL

Home improvements: Allow home buyers to finance energy improvements on their homes through their mortgage lenders.

Car tires: Institute labels to inform consumers about low-rolling-resistance tires, which improve fuel efficiency.

Appliances: Issue new efficiency standards for 11 household appliances, including air conditioners, heaters, stoves, pool heaters and TVs.

GOVERNMENT

Funding: Spend $1.9 billion by the end of the decade, most of it redirected from other programs, and ask industry to commit more than $60 billion.

Trees: Increase Agriculture Department assistance for tree planting and forest management because trees absorb carbon dioxide.

Auto emissions: Set up a one-year evaluation of ways to reduce emissions from cars and light trucks.

Dams: Ask Congress to permit private investment in energy-efficient improvements at federal dams.

Utilities: Form partnerships with utilities and environmental groups to develop and market more efficient appliances.

Landfills: Require through EPA regulation a reduction in methane emissions from landfills.

INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE

Energy efficiency: Launch a program helping businesses improve heating and cooling of their buildings.

Parking money: Ask Congress to change tax law so that employers who provide parking for workers would have to offer a cash equivalent to employees who do not use that benefit.

Lighting: Expand the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Green Lights” program that assists companies in converting to energy efficient lighting.

Efficient motors: Collaborate with industry on development and use of more efficient industrial motors.

Natural gas: Encourage state and local agencies to allow use of natural gas in the summer in coal- and oil-fired plants.

Wind power: Form a consortium with utilities to increase commercial use of renewable energy sources such as wind, biomass and geothermal.

Manure power: Establish an effort with farmers to provide farm energy with methane from animal manure.

Hydrofluorocarbons: Narrow the uses allowed for hydrofluorocarbons, which can substitute for ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, but are themselves a factor in global warming.

Foreign assistance: Establish a pilot program on ways U.S. companies can help other countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The results, however, would not be counted against the U.S. goal for 2000.

Source: World Resources Institute, Times staff and Wire reports

Top Carbon Dioxide Producers (In million metric tons): U.S.: 4.9 C.I.S.: 3.8 China: 2.3 Japan: 1.0 Germany: 0.6 * Commonwealth of Independent States