Three Senators Offer New Cap-and-Trade GHG Emissions Reduction Plan

A trio of Senators - John F. Kerry, D-Mass., Joseph I. Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Lindsey O. Graham, R-S.C. - have come together to offer a compromise GHG framework bill that they are hoping will influence the outcome of the United Nations-led Copenhagen climate conference, as well as break a logjam in the Senate, the Washington Post reported today.

Although Lieberman was quoted as saying "the movement for climate change legislation in the United States Senate is alive and well," the Post wrote: "But the message was still fairly general: The senators revealed few details about their plans and said they were negotiable." Central was that they proposed cutting GHG emissions by 17 percent by 2020 through federal legislation.

The Capitol Hill announcement came as President Obama was on center stage in Oslo, Norway, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, and saying that threats to peace might increase along with greenhouse gas emissions, if nothing were done to reduce them. He was quoted by the Post as saying: "The world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, famine and mass displacement that will fuel more conflict for decades."

Wrote the Post: "The senators said they continue to support a cap-and-trade system, in which polluters can either cut their emissions or buy credits that pay others to reduce them instead. But they don't support the name, which opponents have twisted into cap and tax. Said Lieberman: 'You remember the artist formerly known as Prince? This is the market-based system for punishing polluters previously known as 'cap and trade'."