Senate Panel Approves Key Climate Change
Legislation
Chairman Lieberman Praises Action as
"Substantial Step
"
WASHINGTON – In a strong show of bipartisanship, members of
the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee today unanimously
approved landmark legislation that would create a new White
House office on climate change responsible for
developing, coordinating, and implementing a national strategy
to address the problem of global climate change and bring the
United States into compliance with the Senate-ratified 1992 Rio
Treaty. With ten senators present, the Committee voice-voted the
bill to the floor without opposition.
"This is a red-letter day for the environment,"
Chairman Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) said of the panel’s action on
S. 1008, the Climate Change Strategy and Technology Innovation
Act of 2001. "This initiative represents a substantial step
forward in our quest to tackle one of the most complex and
potentially devastating problems that mankind has ever
faced."
The legislation, introduced by Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) and
Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), and cosponsored by Lieberman, would
also create a new Department of Energy research office that
would focus on "breakthrough" technologies to help
combat global warming. The research effort would be funded at $4
billion over the next decade.
Lieberman expressed hope that the bill could provide
"common ground" on which Americans could come together
to address the climate change crisis. "Although some of us
have taken sharp issue with President Bush’s decision to walk
away from the Kyoto global warming treaty without offering any
viable alternative, I think we can all agree on the need for a
national strategy to address this worldwide phenomenon, and
beyond that, a rational process for developing and implementing
climate change policy as well as promoting research on
climate-sensitive technologies ."
The senator cautioned that the legislation would not solve
all problems. "This is not a panacea – it is a very
useful instrument, but like a surgeon’s scalpel, you need to
know how to use it, or the patient will suffer. In other words,
we still have to make the hard decisions about how to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions – whether, for example, we need to
have binding targets and timetables in order to drive
innovation, which I favor. Nevertheless, enacting this measure
would send an important signal that the United States wants to
be part of the solution to the problem."
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