This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.<\/i><\/p>\n
Today Senators Joe Lieberman and John Warner introduced America’s Climate Security Act (ACSA), a comprehensive climate change bill that would cap and then cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Capping emissions is a crucial step in the fight against global warming, and this bill may be the one that gets us there.<\/p>\n
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The centerpiece of the bill is a mandatory cap on emissions from facilities that emit more than 10,000 CO2<\/sub>-equivalents of greenhouse gas in any year. These covered facilities are responsible for about 75 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n Covered facilities would have to bring their emissions down to 2005 levels by 2012. Then from 2012 to 2050, their emissions would be cut an additional 1.8 percent of 2005 levels each year. This would bring down emissions in covered facilities to 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and 70 percent by 2050.<\/p>\n The bill calls for some emissions permits to be auctioned and some to be given away – more free in the beginning, transitioning to a higher percentage sold at auction in later years. The best formula is probably yet to be worked out. The auction revenue would be distributed as follows: 52.25 percent to climate-friendly technology, 19 percent to low-income energy consumers, 19 percent to wildlife adaptation, 5 percent to climate change and national security, and 4.75 percent to a worker training program.<\/p>\n The bill includes an energy efficiency section that strengthens residential efficiency standards and building codes. The sponsors estimate that these policies would result in a total economy-wide reduction of up to 19 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and 63 percent by 2050.<\/p>\n Importantly, the Lieberman-Warner bill contains an effective approach to managing costs that minimizes economic impacts without compromising climate protection. Other cost management proposals would jettison emissions caps if the price of reducing emissions reached an arbitrary ceiling. Instead, Lieberman and Warner would allow companies to bank emissions allowances, and borrow emissions allowances from future years.<\/p>\n Lieberman and Warner are the chairman and ranking member of a key global warming subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and the bill is winning strong bipartisan support. They plan to bring the bill to a markup in their panel within the next few weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense. Today Senators Joe Lieberman and John Warner introduced America’s Climate Security Act (ACSA), a comprehensive climate change bill that would cap and then cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Capping emissions is a crucial step in the fight against global warming, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n