Global Warming News

Sacramento—Environment California called on its Congressional delegation today, Earth Day, to endorse a statement of principles for “strong, fair, and science-based” federal legislation to address global warming.  The “Principles for Global Warming Legislation” were released today by Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Jay Inslee (D-WA) and will eventually be sent in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Global warming is a challenge of enormous proportions, but these principles provide a blueprint for America to do its part to solve global warming.  To protect our environment, our economy, and future generations, our leaders must rise to this challenge.  We call on our Representatives in Congress to endorse these strong principles,” said Environment California Global Warming Advocate Jason Barbose.

According to the letter, “Acting in accordance with these principles is critical to achieving a fair and effective bill that will avoid the most dangerous global warming and assist those harmed by the warming that is unavoidable, while strengthening our economy.” 

“These forward-looking principles are like the difference between night and day compared with the grossly inadequate goal for global warming announced by President Bush last week,” said Barbose.

Last Wednesday, President Bush announced a new goal to halt the growth in U.S. global warming emissions by 2025.  The Department of Energy projects that U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will rise by 12% above 2006 levels by 2025.  In stark contrast, in 2007, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that global emissions must peak no later than 2015 to prevent catastrophic effects of global warming.

The Waxman-Markey-Inslee principles build on the Safe Climate Act (H.R. 1590), which is the leading global warming bill in the House and has a total of 152 cosponsors, including many California representatives.  The bill would establish a comprehensive, science-based framework for addressing global warming in the United States.  Representative Waxman is the chief sponsor of the bill.

The principles call for reducing total U.S. emissions of global warming pollutants by 15-20% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050 in order to keep the global rise in temperatures to no more than 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C) over pre-industrial levels.  This is the threshold beyond which many of the most dangerous impacts from global warming will become inevitable, according to the most recent science.

The principles also call for requiring polluters to pay for their emissions and using the revenue to invest in “the best clean energy and energy efficiency technologies” and to “return revenue to consumers.”

In the coming weeks, Environment California will encourage members of the state’s Congressional delegation to endorse the principles by lobbying, organizing call-in days, raising the issue in the media, and through other tactics.

Representatives Waxman, Markey, and Inslee are senior members of the Energy & Commerce Committee; Representative Waxman is also chair of the Oversight Committee, and Representative Markey is chair of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

Download the “Principles for Global Warming Legislation.”