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Environment
- Global
Climate Change Global Climate Change Introduction
of the Global Warming Protection Act Congressional Record Extension
of Remarks by Henry A. Waxman Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to join Congressmen MILLER, FASCELL, BOEHLERT, and over 100 other colleagues in introducing a vitally important legislative proposal, the Global Climate Protection Act. This bill mandates that the U.S. freeze CO2 emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000, as almost every other nation in the industrialized world has pledged to do. A decade ago most Americans thought-understandably-that the greatest threat to the continued existence of our society was the potential for nuclear war. Today, with the demise of the Soviet Union, and the emergence of new data on the damage mankind is doing to the planet's ozone layer and climate system, it is clear that the most severe threats we face as a society are the potentially devastating environmental changes that we are inflicting on our planet. Greenhouse warming is probably the most severe such threat. Mankind has dramatically increased the natural concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that trap the planet's heat. Scientists predict that by early in the next century we will have more than doubled the natural level of carbon dioxide in the planet's atmosphere. Experts from around the world agree that we must control carbon dioxide emissions to protect our planet from dangerous climate changes that might have devastating impacts on our ecosystems, our health, our living environment, and our supply of food and drinking water supply. The potential effects of climate change include increased frequency and severity of droughts and hurricanes, reduced agricultural productivity, flooding of coastal areas and wetlands, inundation of drinking water aquifers with salt water, increased spread of infectious disease, and loss of important natural ecosystems. We need an effective international agreement to deal with this global problem, and we need it soon. Unfortunately, however, the Bush administration has made the United States the major obstacle to meaningful international action to protect our planet. At ongoing international negotiations, the United States is the only developed nation, other than Turkey, to oppose control of carbon dioxide emissions. Newspaper editorials across the nation have condemned the U.S. position. According to the New York Times, the refusal to support carbon dioxide control has made the United States an environmental pariah. The Atlanta Constitution says the Bush administration position on global warming has made the United States "an outlaw nation." This is an unacceptable situation, and one that Congress must move to change. In the spring of 1990, when the Bush administration opposed strong action to protect our ozone layer, Congress stepped in and unanimously passed a provision requiring that the President take a more responsible position for protection of our planet. Two weeks later, at an international meeting in London, U.S. opposition disappeared, and an effective international agreement was reached. We must do no less on protection of the global climate. That is why the Global Climate Protection Act is so important. It mandates that the United States take the responsible first step to address our global climate problem. It is a step that the rest of the industrialized world is now advocating at international negotiations-stabilizing carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2000. Numerous studies, including analyses by the National Academy of Science, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, *E951 indicate that carbon dioxide emissions can be stabilized at little or no costs, or even at a net savings to the economy. The exceptionally large number of original cosponsors demonstrates the strong congressional support for assuming a more responsible position on the global climate issue. We are sending a strong message to other nations participating in the international negotiations: "U.S. opposition to an effective international agreement on global climate will not stand." I urge my colleagues to join us in cosponsoring this important bill, which I have asked to be reprinted here in the RECORD. When the energy bill comes up on the House floor in April or May, I will offer this bill as an amendment. In the energy bill, Congress may establish the principles to guide America's energy policy into the next century. It's important that protection of our planet's climate be a fundamental part of this program. The fight to
avert greenhouse warming will be long and difficult. But it is time
that it began in earnest with a meaningful first step.
This Act may be cited as the "Global Climate Protection Act". SEC. 2. FINDINGS. The Congress finds that-
(2) the world's leading scientific experts, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United States National Academy of Sciences, have concluded that continued emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases will lead to a warming of the global climate; (3) such a change in global climate could increase the frequency and severity of hurricanes and droughts, have disastrous impacts on the planet's agricultural productivity, flood coastal areas and wetlands, inundate drinking water supplies with salt water, devastate many of the planet's natural ecosystems, cause serious human health impacts, and threaten the habitability of the Earth; (4) an international agreement is needed soon to provide for effective control of CO2 and other greenhouse emissions globally; (5) among the world's major industrialized nations only the United States has failed to support an international agreement to stabilize emissions of CO2; (6) numerous studies, including analyses by the National Academy of Sciences, and the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, show that CO2 emissions in the United States can be stabilized at 1990 levels at little or no costs or even a substantial savings to the economy; (7) a requirement for stabilization of CO2 emissions in the United States will be an important first step in responding effectively to the global climate problem and will constitute an important United States commitment towards assuming this country's share of responsibility for protection of the global environment; and (8) a statutory
requirement for stabilization of CO2 emissions in the United States
will dramatically enhance prospects for reaching an international
agreement to control emissions of greenhouse gases before the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro
in June of 1992.
(b) PROGRESS DETERMINATIONS.-Not later than 4 years after enactment of this Act and at 2-year intervals thereafter, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall complete an evaluation of the progress made pursuant to the regulations promulgated under this section and submit a report to the Congress containing the results of such evaluation. Each such evaluation shall contain a determination whether such regulations will achieve the stabilization required under subsection (a). If the Administrator determines that such regulations will not achieve such stabilization, the President shall, within 1 year after such determination, promulgate additional regulations that will achieve such stabilization, using the authorities referred to in subsection (a). (c) CITIZEN ACTION.-Any citizen of the United States may bring an action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against any officer of the United States where there is an alleged failure by such officer to perform any act or duty under this section which is not discretionary with such officer. In any such action, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia shall issue such orders as may be necessary to assure that such officer performs such act or duty. (d) DEFINITIONS.-The
term "stabilization of CO2 emissions" means the achievement
and maintenance of a level of aggregate annual CO2 emissions from
all anthropogenic sources of such emissions in the United States
at a level which does not exceed the aggregated level of such emissions
in the United States from such sources in 1990. |
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