Yahoo News 24 Apr 09;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A bill to curb greenhouse gases is "one of the most important pieces of legislation" ever before the US Congress, Nobel laureate and champion of the environment, Al Gore, said Friday.
"Passage of this legislation will restore America's leadership of the world and begin, at long last, to solve the climate crisis," said Gore, the former US vice president who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on combating global warming.
"It is truly a moral imperative," he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Congress is examining a draft bill for clean energy development that aims to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent from their 2005 levels by 2020, and boost reliance on renewable sources of energy.
Gore, a former lawmaker in both houses of Congress, said the legislation would simultaneously address three major challenges facing the United States: climate change, the economic crisis and national security threats.
"Our country cannot afford more of the status quo, more gasoline price instability, more job losses, more outsourcing of factories, and more years of sending two billion dollars every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil."
The draft bill is set to pass the House of Representatives thanks to a wide Democratic majority there, but its future remains uncertain in the Senate.
Gore said the bill was as important as the civil rights legislation passed by Congress in the 1960s giving African-Americans the right to vote, and the Marshall Plan of the late 1940s for rebuilding Europe after World War II.
But Republicans and some Democrats from coal- or oil-producing states warn of potentially catastrophic economic impacts from setting limits on emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Republican House Minority leader John Boehner said Gore "deserves another Oscar for his testimony today on the Democrats? plans for a massive national energy tax on every American," referring to Gore's Academy Award for his documentary on climate change "An Inconvenient Truth."
"As Mr. Gore spoke to the television cameras in the Committee chamber, news reports indicate that behind the scenes, Democrats are wheeling and dealing, trying to buy votes for this disastrous bill with your taxpayer dollars," Boehner said in a statement.
The White House and the Democratic majority in Congress want the bill completed by the end of the year, with President Barack Obama planning to travel to Copenhagen for a major UN climate change conference in December.
Gore pleads for unity on climate, despite divide
Dina Cappiello And H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press Yahoo News 24 Apr 09;
WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Al Gore, the leading American voice on climate change, urged lawmakers Friday to overcome partisan differences and take action to reduce greenhouse gases, but Democrats and Republicans sparred even more vigorously over the cost of dealing with global warming.
Gore, who won a Nobel prize for his work on climate change, told a congressional hearing that "the dire and growing threat" of a warmer earth requires the parties to unite to deal with the environmental threat. He endorsed a House Democratic bill that would limit carbon dioxide and other pollution linked to warming.
"It is a challenge that this Congress must rise to," Gore said. "I wish I could find the words to get past the partisan divide that both sides have contributed to. ... It shouldn't be partisan. It should be something we do together in our national interest."
But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., argued that the Democratic proposal to reduce greenhouse gases would "punish the American people" by imposing higher energy costs and threatening jobs.
"This bill is an energy tax," Gingrich said. "An energy tax punishes senior citizens, it punishes rural Americans, if you use electricity it punishes you. This bill will increase your cost of living and may kill your job."
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee that is writing the bill, shot back that Gingrich was resorting to "the old scare tactics" designed to undermine any congressional effort to address the problem.
"When American people hear the statements you have made today, they get scared, which I think is exactly what is intended," a visibly angry Waxman told Gingrich, a potential presidential contender in 2012 and a leading voice of the GOP.
Gore defended the science that warns of a potential climate crisis later this century and insisted the blueprint outlined by House Democrats would address the problem without soaring prices for Americans.
"I think the cost of energy will come down when we make this transition to renewable energy," said Gore, who predicted economic costs would be much greater if global warming is not reined in by a shift from the use of fossil fuels. Democrats argued that the development of renewable and energy efficient technologies will produce jobs and mitigate cost increases.
The House bill calls for mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases by 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and 83 percent by mid-century. It also would require utilities to produce a quarter of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and impose new efficiency requirements.
The measure would cap greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. Under a compromise being discussed, a large portion of these emission permits would be given away, while others would be auctioned with much of the revenue to be redistributed to ease the impact of higher energy costs.
Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the committee's top Republican, argued that the proposed "cap-and-trade" system would cost tens of billions of dollars a year. "How in the world can we have a (pollution) trade system that doesn't cost jobs and doesn't cost the economy?" he said.
House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio denounced the draft bill as a "massive national energy tax on every American .... who drives a car, buys a product manufactured in the United States, or has the audacity to flip on a light switch."
Barton said Republicans are putting together their own climate proposal that would scrap the "cap-and-trade" system. He said the GOP proposal, yet to be unveiled, will call for expanding nuclear energy and pumping more money into ways to capture carbon from coal-burning power plants.
While Republicans were critical, some Democrats expressed concern as well.
"How do we protect our people?" asked Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., whose state is reeling from the economic recession and is home to many energy-intensive industries, including the ailing auto industry. Dingell said he's not convinced the bill will protect U.S. jobs, especially if China isn't forced to take similar actions.
"If the United States leads, China will follow," Gore argued.
Friday's session concluded days of hearings on the climate bill, which Waxman says he hopes his committee will approve by the end of May. The Obama administration broadly endorsed the legislation, although some issues — such as allocating the pollution permits — have yet to be worked out.
Democratic sponsors of the bill hoped Friday's testimony of former Sen. John Warner, R-Va., might sway some GOP lawmakers.
Warner said dealing with the climate issue is essential for national security and the sake of future generations — even if there are economic consequences.
"Is this the time to challenge an issue of this magnitude which has ramifications of cost to everyone here in this country and is going to require sacrifices. I say to you, yes, it is the time," Warner said.
Gore pushes for U.S. climate law this year
Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 24 Apr 09;
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global warming activist Al Gore on Friday urged passage this year of a U.S. law to slash greenhouse emissions, saying failure to pass legislation could cause the collapse of world climate negotiations.
Gore, the former U.S. vice president and star of the Oscar-winning documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth," told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that passing a climate law is a "moral imperative" that will affect U.S. standing in the world community.
"Once we find the moral courage to take on this issue, the rest of the world will come along," Gore said. "Now is the time to act before the world gathers in Copenhagen this December to solve the crisis. Not next year, this year."
He said that the passage of this bill would be met with "a sigh of relief" at the Copenhagen meeting aimed at crafting a follow-up agreement to the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol.
If it fails to pass, Gore said, "I think that would be awful to contemplate ...
"If the administration went to this global negotiation without this legislation, then I think we might well see a slow-motion collapse of the (climate change) negotiations."
The United States is seen as a lead actor in global climate talks, notably at a State Department meeting in Washington next Monday and Tuesday of the 17 countries that emit the most greenhouse gases. These include rich countries like the United States, Japan and members of the European Union, along with such fast-growing developing economies as China and India.
In the fourth straight day of climate hearings on Capitol Hill, Gore praised the carbon-capping legislation crafted in the Energy and Commerce Committee for its plan to rapidly introduce new green technologies that will create new jobs.
Gore, a former Democratic senator from Tennessee, appeared with former Senator John Warner, a Virginia Republican, who helped shepherd a carbon-cutting bill to the Senate floor last year. The bill ultimately died on a procedural maneuver, but paved the way for this year's effort.
The bill now being crafted in the House of Representatives is based on a cap-and-trade system, favored by President Barack Obama, to cut U.S. emissions by roughly 15 percent by 2020 -- back to 1990 levels.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
