By the time that we should have atmospheric greenhouse gases
under control, The Breakthrough Initiative said of the ACES bill: "If fully utilized, the emissions 'offset'
provisions in the [bill] would allow continued business as usual, growth in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions
until 2030, leading one to wonder: where's the cap in the 'cap' and trade?"
Let's take a lesson from the failed
experiment with cap and trade in Europe. They started with a commendable goal: to cut greenhouse gases by making companies
pay for each ton of CO2 they emitted.
But that plan, let loose lobbying pandemonium that led politicians to
give favors to industries, blunting the environmental mission, just as
Waxman-Markey will do, in its current form.
Four years later, the European
system has so far produced no benefit to the climate - but has generated a
multibillion-dollar bonanza for some of Europe's
biggest polluters. The New York Times reports that a German power company received
$6.4 billion in the first 3 years of the system and that the amount of carbon
dioxide emitted by plants and factories, has not fallen in Europe
- instead it has risen an average of about half a percent in 2006 and '07.
Hope is fleeting that the U.S. Senate will bring better sense to bear on climate legislation than the U.S. House, but if they do not, humanity may be screwed. With a filibuster-proof, Democratic majority including the recently affirmed, Al Franken (D-MN), fixing Waxman-Markey ultimately rests with one person -- Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) of Connecticut - who was the lead sponsor of an even weaker bill in 2003.
At a time when serious leadership is needed to cut greenhouse gases 80% below 1990 levels by 2025, the inadequate greenhouse gas cap in Waxman-Markey cuts greenhouse gas emissions 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83% by 2050. A plan for achieving meaningful cuts in
greenhouse gases is easily stated: Get
off the fossil fuel economy and transition to a 100% clean, renewable,
non-nuclear energy economy within 10 years.
Stop all logging, mining, grazing and drilling. America, this is your climate bill.
© Karyn Strickler,
2009. Karyn is a political scientist,
grassroots organizer and writer. She is
a senior fellow with the Center for New Politics and Policy. Karyn is the producer and host of Climate
Challenge on MMCTV. You can contact her
at climatechallengetv@gmail.com
.
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Karyn Strickler is a political scientist, grassroots organizer and writer. She is founder and president of Vote Climate U.S. PAC, working to elect candidates to get off fossil fuels and put a price on carbon. Karyn is the former host and (more...)
