Senator to offer bill committing US to cap-and-trade GHG scheme

Senator to offer bill committing US to cap-and-trade GHG scheme

London (Platts)--25Aug2006

US Senator Diane Feinstein plans to introduce a bill in January
that will require the US to launch a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse
gases and reduce such emissions 10% by 2025.

In a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Thursday, the
California Democrat said she also is planning to introduce two other bills in
the new Congress that would set a minimum fuel efficiency standard for all
cars of 35 miles per gallon by 2017 and a national energy efficiency program
that will set standards for appliances and buildings and require utilities to
meet some of their power demand through energy efficiency measures.

"Earlier this year, the Senate Energy Committee held a conference on
global warming," Feinstein told the audience. "The clear consensus was that a
mandatory cap-and-trade system was the most effective way to prompt changes in
energy production, especially with regard to pulverized coal plants."

Feinstein also said the US should "make addressing global warming a top
priority, and join the European Union and other nations in reducing
emissions."

"Kyoto is certainly not perfect, and it will expire in 2012," she said.
"But the US needs to be a leader to ensure that there is a framework in place
after 2012 to prevent catastrophic climate change."

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