Washington (Platts)--1Apr2008

The US Senate is to begin debating a comprehensive bill to cap greenhouse
gas emissions from the power, natural gas, transportation and industrial
sectors to 71% below 2005 levels by 2050 on June 2, a key lawmaker said
Tuesday.

Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Barbara
Boxer, Democrat-California, said she intends to support the Lieberman-Warner
bill when she brings it to the Senate floor following the Memorial Day recess.
"I want it to pass," she said.

Boxer said she would oppose amendments to weaken the measure, but would
be supportive of efforts to strengthen it. One such amendment she said she
might back is one expected to be offered by Senator Tom Carper,
Democrat-Delaware, to bolster restrictions on electric utility emissions other
than greenhouse gases.

Carper said he plans to offer as an amendment to Lieberman-Warner
portions of his clean air bill of 2007 to restrict power plant emissions of
nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury. Carper said he already has a dozen
senators supportive of the measure.

Both Lieberman-Warner and Carper's bill employ emissions trading programs
where emitting sources swap allowances to help them meet the pollution
restrictions.

"We need to provide certainty for industry" on clean air regulation,
said Carper. "I believe that legislation is the approach that would provide
that certainty to industry and the rest of us."

Drafted by Joe Lieberman, Independent-Connecticut, and Virginia
Republican John Warner, the Lieberman-Warner bill, S. 2191, would begin
capping greenhouse gas emissions from the covered sectors in 2012 at 4% below
2005 levels. The emissions cap would increase incrementally as the number of
free allowances to industry shrinks. By 2031, all emission allowances would
have to be bought at auction.

Boxer and Carper said they hoped support for the bill would be buoyed by
a $300-million media campaign on climate change awareness by former Senator
and US Vice President Al Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on
global warming.

Boxer said she expected opponents to a climate change mandate to unload
millions of dollars for their effort. Gore's campaign "will balance the other
side."

Gore on Monday unveiled the three-year nationwide advertizing campaign
through his Alliance for Climate Protection non-profit to gather 10 million
supporters of a climate change policy.

"We can solve the climate crisis, but it will require a major shift in
public opinion and engagement," Gore said in his statement. "When politicians
hear the American people calling loud and clear for change, they'll listen."