US greenhouse gas bill proposed

News web pic 2_108.jpg
Two US Senators have proposed a bill which would force the country to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 60 per cent by 2050.
 

Independent Joe Lieberman and Republican John Warner have drafted legislation which would see 75 per cent of the US economy subject to emissions caps, with an interim target of hitting 1990

CO2

levels by 2020.

'With all the irrefutable evidence we now have corroborating that climate change is real, dangerous, and proceeding faster than many scientists predicted, this is the year for Congress to move this critical legislation,' said Lieberman.

The pair hope that the bill will leave the committee stage and enter the Senate by next year, but Warner acknowledged that the process would be both 'very long and contentious'. Both Senators expressed frustration with the Bush administration's focus on voluntary targets.

But environmental groups have already decried the proposals as inadequate. US Friends of the Earth President, Brent Blackwelder, said that the bill would 'fall far short of our responsibility as one of the world's largest global warming emitters.'

This article first appeared in the Ecologist October 2007

Donate to The Ecologist and support high impact environmental journalism and analysis.

  •

    Power On - Hydrogen

    Jon Hughes
    Mark Anslow
     |
    There is much talk of the possibility of a future ‘hydrogen economy’, which will power all our vehicles and homes. It is important to remember that hydrogen is not an energy source; it is an energy carrier. To obtain hydrogen it must be split from either natural gas or water molecules. The former, most widely used, method not only requires energy but also gives off carbon dioxide (CO2) in the process. Hydrogen produced in this way requires more energy to make than will eventually be returned when it is used. It makes more sense from a climate perspective to burn the natural gas itself than to convert and re-convert it to hydrogen in this way.
  • News web pic 2_208.jpg

    Ocean CO2 'sponge' effect slowing down

    A ten year study by scientists at the University of East Anglia has concluded that the ocean is absorbing less CO2 than it was ten years ago.