Washington (Platts)--30Jan2008

An environmental group is calling on US Senate Democrats to either "fix
or ditch" a climate-change bill that would impose less stringent cuts in
greenhouse gas emissions than what the party's leading presidential candidates
have endorsed.

In an ad campaign launched Wednesday, Friends of the Earth Action say a
vote on the bill (S. 2191) introduced last year by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, a
Connecticut Independent, John Warner, a Virginia Republican, would force the
eventual Democratic candidate to take a difficult position since all of the
remaining Democratic president candidates have endorsed proposals that would
cut more greenhouse gas emissions and force industry to pay more for the right
to pollute.

The bill, which is scheduled to be voted on by the Senate later this
year, would reduce emissions 70% from 2005 levels by 2050 and begin by giving
away over three quarters of emissions allowances to industry in the first
year.

By contrast, Democratic Presidential candidates Senator Hillary Clinton
of New York, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, and former Senator John Edwards
of North Carolina all support 80% reductions from 1990 levels by 2050. They
also support giving no emissions allowances away to industry in the first
year, instead establishing a 100% emissions allowances auction.

Senior Democratic aides have told Platts in recent weeks that Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, will force a floor vote on the
bill. Senator Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works
Committee, the panel which approved the measure, has also voiced her desire to
force Republicans to take a stand on the measure.

The ad takes aim at the leading Republican candidate, Senator John McCain
of Arizona, though he has long been a supporter of mandatory greenhouse gas
emissions reductions. "Where do Senate Democrats stand on Global Warming? With
Clinton, Edwards, Obama or McCain?" the group asks in its ad. McCain has
offered bills in the past with Lieberman to establish an emissions trading
system, which became the basis for the Lieberman-Warner bill.

--Alexander Duncan, alexander_duncan@platts.com