Powerful Pact Formed in Senate on Global Warming

Two influential senators, John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), teamed up Friday to develop legislation that would cap greenhouse gas emissions and create a trading system to reward companies that do more than their share to combat climate change.

Their announcement builds on growing momentum in the Senate to address global warming with legislation now that President Bush has ended U.S. participation in the Kyoto accord, an international effort to attack global warming.

“Given the fact that the United States produces approximately 25% of the total greenhouse gas emissions, the United States has a responsibility to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases,” McCain said.

The Senate already is considering several measures to address climate change. Earlier this week, a Senate committee voted unanimously to direct the president to produce a plan by October for cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide.

The developments reflect growing discomfort with Bush’s decision to have the United States sit on the sidelines last month while 178 nations agreed to rules to implement the Kyoto agreement.

“This indicates that there is a sea change in thinking with respect to global warming, which has been catalyzed by administration’s withdrawal from Kyoto,” said Stuart Eizenstat, who was the chief U.S. negotiator to the 1998 conference in Kyoto, Japan, where the international accord was approved.

The McCain-Lieberman alliance is significant because of the political prominence of the two senators, who stumped against Bush on the presidential campaign trail last year.

McCain’s engagement in particular suggests a rocky ride for Bush on global warming. Known as a GOP maverick, McCain has aggressively championed such causes as managed health care and campaign finance reform, putting him at odds with many of his Republican colleagues.

Global warming is a phenomenon caused by increasing concentrations of certain gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapor. The gases trap solar heat, causing surface temperatures to rise over time. Most scientists say the long-term environmental effects could be profound, including increased drought in semiarid regions and higher sea levels in coastal areas.

McCain and Lieberman have not yet introduced legislation and did not indicate at what level they would cap greenhouse gas emissions. But they said a growing body of scientific evidence validates the need to reduce emissions and argued that a “cap-and-trade” system would be the best way to get the job done without hurting the U.S. economy.

“This is a win-win approach for the environment and for American industry,” Lieberman said. “Most significantly, it will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are slowly overheating our planet. But it will also create a market by which corporations will receive valuable credits for efficient investments.”

Under a cap-and-trade system, the government would set a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions from such sources as electrical power plants. If one company successfully reduced emissions to a level below the cap, it would receive a credit it could then sell to another company that was having trouble reaching its goal.

Even supporters of the cap-and-trade approach acknowledge it will be a challenge to design a workable system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But they note that the United States has successfully developed a similar system to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain.

Lieberman and others argue that American companies will lose their competitive edge if they do nothing while foreign rivals develop low-emission technologies to comply with Kyoto.

But Glenn Kelly, executive director of the Global Climate Change Coalition, a leading industry group, said the only way to achieve a cap-and-trade program is to impose government restrictions on energy use. “To limit energy consumption is to restrict economic opportunity and increase consumer cost.”

Kelly predicted the McCain-Lieberman proposal will face formidable obstacles in Congress.

“There are others in Congress who are very much opposed to a cap-and-trade issue because of the severe economic consequences that would result,” Kelly said.