Dec 5 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Dena Bunis The Orange County Register, Calif.

Senate Republicans lost their first attempt this morning to derail the global warming bill Sen. Barbara Boxer hopes to send to the chamber this week.

Under an amendment by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, the provisions of the legislation, which caps greenhouse-gas emissions, would have ended in 10 years unless China and India adopted a climate change regime similar in scope to that of the United States.

Republican members of the Environment and Public Works committee -- who with the exception of Sen. John Warner, R-Va., co-author of the bill, oppose the legislation -- said action by the United States is meaningless unless China changes its ways.

"If this great country acts alone and this bill accomplishes what we set out to do and China does nothing," Craig said, the effects of the U.S. action will be "minuscule. The world must act in unity."

Craig's amendment would also have required that the Environmental Protection Agency certify with a 90 percent degree of confidence that the bill would mean a reduction in global temperature of at least 0.5 degrees Celsius.

The amendment failed on a party-line vote with Republicans voting yes and Democrats voting no.

Boxer's committee is expected to work through the day and into tomorrow if necessary to vote to send the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act to the floor. Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he plans to bring a climate change bill to the floor next year.

"If this bill should pass, which it won't," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., "this is going to be the greatest boon for China. We want to restrict that economic boon to 10 years."

In opposing Craig's amendment, Democrats pointed to a provision in the bill that would require the administration to urge other nations to adopt similar measures. Nations that don't would eventually incur higher costs to get their goods to U.S. markets.

"I will never vote to hang our future and the future of our kids on China," Boxer said.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, co-author of the bill, said scientists have said that even if China and India do nothing to reduce greenhouse gases, U.S. action would make a difference.

U.S. action, Lieberman said, "will keep the world beneath the danger level for carbon dioxide in the air."

DETAILS OF GLOBAL WARMING MEASURE

The Lieberman-Warmer Climate Security Act, authored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., would reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 2005 levels by 2012. And it would cut emissions by 63 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.

The bill would:

--Place a declining cap on U.S. emissions of five main greenhouse gases: CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride and per fluorocarbons. It also creates a separate cap on hydro fluorocarbons, one of the most potent greenhouse gases.

--Establish a cap-and-trade program under which entities would be required to either reduce their emissions themselves or use so-called allowances or credits to satisfy the emission reduction mandates. About 80 percent of the U.S. economy would be covered under this bill.

--Give free emission allowances to power plants, manufacturers and other industrial sources to get them started. They would be phased out beginning in 2031. After that entities would have to pay for such credits. Originally the bill didn't reduce the free allowances until 2036.

--Much of the revenue collected from the eventual sale of these allowances, or credits, would go to finance clean energy technologies like solar, wind and geothermal energy plus biofuels and plug-in hybrids. Money would also be set aside to help low-income consumers pay increased energy bills, weatherize their homes and for job training for "green-collar" careers.

--Create two federal boards -- one that is akin to the Federal Reserve Board -- would monitor the new system.

--Give states a percentage of the revenue the federal government will get from entities that have to purchase emission allowances. States would use the money for a variety of purposes, including helping mitigate the impact of higher energy costs on low-income consumers, promoting energy efficiency, encouraging advances in green technology, addressing local and regional impacts of climate change policy, including providing help to displaced workers.

--Allow states, such as California, that already have programs to combat global warming, to continue with their efforts.

--Direct the executive branch to step up its efforts to convince other nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If eight years after the bill takes effect a major greenhouse gas emitting nation hasn't acted, the president is authorized to require that importers of greenhouse-gas-intensive manufactured goods, such as steel or aluminum, would have to obtain the same kind of emission credits U.S. manufacturers do.