WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Dec. 5 approved several provisions crafted by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) to the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill.
According to a release from the senator, his initiatives adopted Dec. 5 would increase incentives for states to allow utilities to make homes and buildings more energy efficient, shorten the time period during which polluters receive free permits to emit and authorize a National Academy of Science study on greenhouse gas emissions of the aviation industry.
“Global warming is the most serious environmental problem we face. This bill is a welcome first step in combating global warming and its devastating effects on the planet,” said Lautenberg, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “Our new provisions make this a stronger and more effective bill.”
Lautenberg’s proposals were included in the landmark Lieberman-Warner global warming legislation that just passed out of the Senate Committee and will likely receive consideration by the full Senate early next year.
In an early draft of the bill, free permits to emit were given to polluters in perpetuity. In addition to previously obtaining a date certain by which this practice will end, Lautenberg last week secured language in the bill to move this date closer by five years, to 2030.
An additional Lautenberg provision added would increase incentives for states to allow utilities to aggressively improve the efficiency of residential and commercial homes and buildings.
That would, according to Lautenberg, result in lower utility bills for consumers, a reduced need for new power plants, and decreased greenhouse gas emissions.
Lautenberg also included a provision in the Lieberman-Warner bill that would require the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study on greenhouse gas emissions associated with air travel and recommend the best possible practices for reducing emissions in the aviation industry.
An increase in demand on the aviation industry is causing its emissions to rise. Commercial airlines are responsible for more than 578 billion passenger-miles traveled each year. By this year’s end, 760 million passengers will have flown domestically and internationally.
And by 2015, that number will hit one billion. Five thousand new “very light jets” are also expected to begin carrying passengers over the United States within the next 10 years.
Combined with more efficient airplane engines, more aerodynamic designs, the use of lighter materials and improvements in operations, airlines can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
This provision is one of several improvements that Sen. Lautenberg has made to the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill. Other provisions include:
* Increased coverage to include natural gas emissions to allow for further emissions reductions — potentially more than 20 percent by 2020;
* A scientific “look back” provision to allow for targets to be increased in the future if the latest science requires it;
* A provision to allow – and even encourage – states to go further than the national global warming framework;and
*Increasing the short term target for covered sectors to 15 percent by 2020.
