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WASHINGTON - Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) today joined Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to reintroduce the Climate Stewardship Act in the 109th Congress. The Senators announced plans to begin a nationwide “listening tour” to hear from Americans across the country about the real effects that the warming climate is having on their lives and environment.
“When John and I began this battle we were facing our concern about the impact of global warming on the planet on scientific models and we were projecting what we thought might happen. That period is over,” Lieberman said. “Today, we can see with our own eyes what global warming is doing. In that context it becomes truly irresponsible, if not immoral, for us not to do something.”
According to a United Nations study, every ton of greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere costs each American up to $160 - and the United States is currently emitting billions of tons each year. Property lost to rising sea levels, cropland lost to drought, and revenues lost to dwindling fishing stocks caused by global warming also represent real costs - not to mention the immeasurable damage to Americans’ health and quality of living. According to a recent Zogby poll, 75% of 1,200 citizens polled supported requiring major industries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, with more than 70% support in each region of the nation.
The Climate Stewardship Act, crafted in close consultation with industry leaders and supported by the environmental community, is modeled after the successful acid rain trading program of the 1990 Clean Air Act. It would require a reduction in carbon dioxide emission levels to 2000 levels by the year 2010 by capping the overall greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity generation, transportation, industrial, and commercial economic sectors, and creating a market for individual companies to trade pollution credits.
Despite strong support in the Senate, the Climate Stewardship Act fell short in a vote in October 2003 on the Senate floor. Lieberman pledged to bring the bill up for another vote in the Senate this year, and they remain optimistic that they will improve upon the 44 Senators who supported their bill in the last vote. To ramp up action on the bill, Lieberman announced that he and McCain will take their case to Americans across the country through a series of open meetings.
“If we are going to get the politics to catch up with the science we have got to engage the American people more,” Lieberman said. “Senator McCain and I intend to conduct a series of open meetings throughout America on the subject of global warming. We will ask people to ask themselves whether they will have the water available to grow their communities and their businesses, whether our croplands will yield adequate food, whether our coastal communities will remain above water, whether new diseases will emerge, and of course whether there will be enough snow left to hit the ski slopes if we do not take action to curb greenhouse gases.”
A study by MIT estimated that the Climate Stewardship Act would cost approximately $20 per household, and analysts predict that the impact on U.S. GNP would be no more than .01%. A second study by the Tellus Institute predicted that the Climate Stewardship Act would save Americans $48 billion in net savings by 2020 due to reduced energy demand. And according to a new study released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council the Climate Stewardship Act would add more than 800,000 new jobs in America by 2025.
The legislation has the support of a bipartisan group of 155 mayors across the country, the National Farmers Union, 23 senior climate economists, and the ski industry, the leading insurance underwriter in North America, and an industry coalition that includes corporations such as Maytag have all expressed their support for the bill.
Representatives Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) and John Olver (D-MA), lead sponsors of the House version of the legislation, joined Lieberman and McCain at a press conference today to announce re-introduction of both the House and Senate versions of the legislation. Several of the Senate and House original co-sponsors, including Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), joined the sponsors at the event.
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