Dec. 6 -- After her environment committee voted Wednesday evening to advance major cap-and-trade climate change legislation to the full Senate, Democrat Barbara Boxer received two congratulatory calls.
One, not surprisingly, came from the Republican governor and global warming guru of her home state of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The other was from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
The latter, she said, gives her confidence that the bipartisan Americaīs Climate Security Act will be a priority on the Senate agenda early in 2008.
"This is a historic moment for this committee and this country," Boxer, her voice breaking, said minutes after her Environment and Public Works Committeeīs 11-8 vote. "Whatīs happened here today wonīt go unnoticed. The whole world is watching."
Even though only one of the "aye" votes came from a Republican -- bill co-sponsor John Warner of Virginia -- Boxer and her fellow leaders are confident they can garner the 60 votes necessary for filibuster-proof approval.
Boxerīs committee spent 9.5 hours debating and rejecting most of the 50-plus amendments presented. Several were approved. One, a low- carbon fuel standard, slices the carbon content of transportation fuels 5 percent by 2015 and 10 percent by 2020. Another requires states to use a portion of their pollution credit allowances to boost recycling rates.
Heeding Boxerīs warnings about placing the billīs "delicate balance" in jeopardy, Warner joined Democrats in rejecting amendments from Republicans that would have allowed for natural gas offshore drilling in select Southern states, the opening of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository, rapid development of nuclear power plants and putting the kibosh on the measure if China and India didnīt follow suit within a decade.
Committee members also voted down an amendment preventing state and local governments from enacting their own global warming solutions.
Too many of the Republican amendments were command-and-control measures that undermine a cap-and-trade system, Boxer said, adding that they approach global warming "with fear, not hope."
The 38-year measure co-sponsored by Warner and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., introduces a cap-and-trade system covering power plants, transportation and factories. Those sectors account for 75 percent of the nationīs emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases.
The bill establishes a Carbon Market Efficiency Board similar to the Securities Exchange Commission. Members would gauge market activity and intervene if unexpected problems arise. It also gives Congress the ability to tighten emissions caps if scientific models suggest adjustments are necessary.
Modeled after a free-market system that controls pollutants causing acid rain, the cap gives companies allowances to sell or buy to meet emissions requirements. Caps would begin at the 2005 emissions level in 2012, with a goal of reducing emissions 20 percent below current levels by 2020 and 70 percent by 2050.
A bill analysis by the World Resources Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council shows emissions would drop 18 to 25 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 62 to 66 percent by 2050.
"We donīt choose winners and losers ā we let the markets decide," Lieberman said. "If the cap becomes uncertain, the innovation we want to have happen will not happen."
One bone of contention is whether pollution permits should be free or auctioned. Itīs estimated that by 2020, permits could be valued at between $50 billion and $300 billion. This bill begins with an auction and give-away mix in 2012, with the auction portion growing to almost 70 percent by 2031 and 100 percent after that.
Some of the money generated by permit auctions would fund fuel costs for low-income citizens and initiatives such as mass transit, energy-efficiency and green technologies.
Committee members voted down an attempt by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to auction most of the permits. Environmentalists have long argued that free allowances will lead to windfall profits for businesses. Sanders also lost on an effort to reduce emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Republicans repeated their concerns that the bill will burden the poor, force companies to move jobs overseas and accomplish nothing if China and India donīt act.
"All pain and no gain," is how committee ranking Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma classified the bill, while Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio called it the nationīs "most pervasive intrusion into the private sector."
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