Washington – Ending 20 years of indecision on global warming, Congress is speeding toward sweeping energy legislation that targets everything from utility plants to light bulbs.
Lawmakers said there’s renewed urgency to act boldly, with Friday’s release of an international scientific panel’s report containing stark climate- change data.
Three from Colorado have major roles in the effort. Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver will shepherd legislation coming out of a powerful House committee. Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar is pushing a slate of energy measures.
Former Sen. Tim Wirth, head of the United Nations Foundation, is pressing Congress to act far more aggressively than he believes it’s likely to do.
“The world’s going to fry unless the United States takes action,” Wirth said.
Many predict passing forceful legislation quickly will be difficult. But most involved agree that the issue has more traction than it’s had in two decades.
Lawmakers, environmentalists and some of the country’s largest corporations now agree that the U.S. must reduce how much carbon dioxide it puts into the atmosphere.
“The scientific debate is now at an end,” said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, an environmental advocacy group.
There have been several signals so far this year showing Congress is prepared to act.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told lawmakers she wanted a global-warming bill by July.
And several prominent Republicans have joined in or offered global- warming legislation.
Key House bills are likely to come in July and in the fall, DeGette said. The first will be easier to pass, focusing on incentives for conservation, energy efficiency and renewable fuels.
The second will be more controversial. It’s more likely to include limits on new coal plants, increases in fuel- efficiency standards and caps on carbon dioxide production.
Those “are difficult issues politically, but in my opinion they are going to be essential for us to really stop climate change,” DeGette said.
DeGette is helping shape bills that will come out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, on which she is vice chair.
The Energy and Commerce Committee bill will target every industry that produces carbon, so that none are more disadvantaged, said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., who heads the subcommittee that will initially write the legislation.
“There is at the end of it all a price to be paid,” Boucher said. “The price translates into a higher cost of energy.”
In the Senate, there already are bills to significantly cut greenhouse gases and hike fuel-efficiency mandates. Salazar plans to push expanded tax incentives and grants for the manufacturing of hybrid vehicles.
There are obstacles. At least two big industry trade groups want limits on the policy changes. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents nine automakers, said it would oppose any congressional attempt to impose higher fuel-economy standards.
Investor-owned electric utilities want a delay in any reduction in carbon emissions until the development of technology that would sequester that carbon. That technology is believed to be at least 10 years off.
Passing a bill over objections about some proposals will be tough, DeGette said.
But “the will is there,” she added. “There’s tremendous public support for a forward-looking energy policy.”
In the Senate, leadership hasn’t set any timetable for bills. Salazar has doubts that Congress will pass major climate-change legislation this year.
“There’s tremendous disagreement about exactly what has to be done,” Salazar said. “I don’t see us having forged a consensus on how to move ahead.”
