Bill must cap emissions

Re “Not so hot,” editorial, Oct. 25

The global warming bill by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.) is disappointing in many ways. Most troubling is its failure to set targets for emissions reductions that are commensurate with what science tells us is needed, and its massive giveaways to corporate polluters. Indeed, a Friends of the Earth analysis has found that the bill would actually reward the coal industry and other polluters by handing them pollution permits worth more than $1 trillion.

As chair of the committee that deals with this topic, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has the power to demand major improvements before the bill moves forward.

Recent research indicates that greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere at a rate greater than almost anyone expected. Time is running out, and Congress may not have another chance to get this right.

Brent Blackwelder

President

Friends of the Earth

Washington

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The suggestion that cap-and-trade legislation introduced by Lieberman and Warner is second best to a carbon tax misses the mark. The test for any serious climate policy is whether it cuts greenhouse gas emissions quickly enough to avert the atmospheric tipping point that scientists tell us we are fast approaching. We know what that level of emissions is, and we can set an emissions cap to achieve it. What we don’t know is where to set a carbon tax to get results, and we can’t afford to guess wrong.

Is there potential for seeking unfair advantage in a cap-and-trade system? There is, as there is in any market. The best way to address that is head on, like the Lieberman-Warner bill does, through regulation and clear accounting along with penalties for bad actors. The wrong way to address it is by abandoning a firm cap on emissions in favor of a tax that can’t make the same guarantee.

Steve Cochran

Washington

The writer directs Environmental Defense’s national climate campaign.