06.29.07
U.S. Senate Environment Committee agrees to draft climate change legislation
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After a Senate committee agreed to propose sharply increased Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules in the past few days, the U.S. may now be moving to include a cap on vehicle CO2 emissions as part of a comprehensive climate change bill which would also place caps on global warming gas emissions from power stations and manufacturing plants.
A proposal from the California Democrat chair of the Senate Environment Committee yesterday won cross-party support for legislation on CO2 limits that would cover the entire U.S. economy. Cars and light trucks are estimated to account for about a third of total U.S. CO2 emissions.
One of the senior politicians who will be involved in drafting legislation this autumn will be Michigan Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who, while described as a long-time ally of the Detroit Big Three, has acknowledged that stabilising greenhouse gas emissions at a safe level will require a reduction of between 60-80% by 2050. The U.S. administration has opposed mandatory emissions caps, favouring instead a reduction in emissions measured against economic growth, of 18% by 2012.
The US Supreme Court ruled earlier this year, against the agency’s executive and the White House, that the Environmental Protection Administration has the authority under the federal Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles, but it has not yet taken measures to fulfil that role.
The EPA has yet to rule on California’s application for a waiver from federal fuel economy rules, and has been given a deadline by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant it or face prosecution by the State.