WP: GOP Warms Up to Emissions Cuts

[DeepModem Mom]

GOP Warms Up to Emissions Cuts
Some Environmentalists Say Proposals Do Not Go Far Enough

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page A10


Republicans who have historically dismissed calls for federal action on global warming are now seeing a political benefit to embracing some curbs on heat-trapping gases, prompting a flurry of Capitol Hill negotiations that could ultimately shift the nation's policies on climate change.

This transformation will be on full display as early as next week, when several senators are expected to jockey to try to attach rival climate change proposals to the Senate energy bill. Three factions -- John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.); Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.); and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) -- are offering competing plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which have been linked to global warming....

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Although most environmentalists see this as a sign of progress, some are worried the Senate may adopt a weak climate change proposal that would undermine more meaningful attempts to cut heat-trapping gases in the United States. The McCain-Lieberman proposal would establish a cap-and-trade system that, in the worst-case scenario, would in 2010 freeze carbon emissions at their then-levels. Bingaman's bill calls for carbon emitters to slow their emissions to mid-2012 levels by 2020, with the provision that industry could buy its way out of the cap if carbon credits become prohibitively expensive. Hagel's package includes voluntary limits and aims to cut carbon emissions by offering generous incentives for technological development and climate research.

"The only bill that guarantees reductions is the McCain-Lieberman Act," said Fred Krupp, president of the advocacy group Environmental Defense....

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A confluence of events -- including a shift in the business community, mounting international and domestic political pressure, state climate initiatives and new scientific evidence of the emerging climate threat -- have all made it easier for lawmakers to take action. But if having a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions is becoming the new must-have on any ambitious Republican's résumé, it is unclear whether this shift will translate into significant new limits on carbon dioxide emissions....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/11/AR2005061100557.html

[KittyWampus]

1. Why Do I Imagine A Do-Nothing Bill Will Pass So The GOP Can Play

Moderate during the 2006 elections?

[Joebert]

2. Why aren't you alone?

Are we cynical?

Or do we just know how this is going to go down already?