Global Warming Campaign News

House and Senate Bills Set the Standard for Federal Action

Washington – Four representatives and one U.S. senator from Maryland have stepped forward to co-sponsor new legislation to address global warming.  Rep. Ben Cardin, Rep. Albert Wynn, Rep. Elijah Cummings, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen are co-sponsors of the Safe Climate Act in the House of Representatives, and Sen. Paul Sarbanes is a co-sponsor of the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Act in the Senate.

“We applaud these Congressmen for standing up to address the greatest environmental challenge of our time,” said Brad Heavner, state director of Environment Maryland.  “When many elected officials are all talk and no action on global warming, these five want to put real solutions in place.” 

Global warming is already having serious negative impacts on the environment.  Sea levels are on the rise, ice and snow cover are decreasing, and storms are becoming more powerful.  Leading scientists, such as James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, caution that we are nearing a climate “tipping point,” beyond which large-scale, dangerous impacts would become unavoidable.  The Safe Climate Act (H.R. 5642) and the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Act (S. 3698) aim to keep emissions of the pollutants that cause global warming below this threshold and protect future generations from catastrophic changes to the climate. 

“Global Warming is a threat that we must confront today,” said Congressman Wynn.  “Global temperatures are rising and weather patterns are changing from the release of carbon dioxide.  As a result of the changing climate, we see warmer summers, stronger hurricanes, longer droughts, and record rainfalls.  We must take real steps to reduce the effects of global warming, and that is why I am a cosponsor of the Safe Climate Act,” said Wynn. 

“We must adopt this legislation in order to reverse the dangerous path we are on.  Immediate action is required to prevent the harmful effects of global warming,” said Congressman Van Hollen.

Scientists and policymakers recognize a 2°C (3.6°F) increase in global temperature over the pre-industrial average as a limit beyond which major changes would become unavoidable.   

Even below 2°C, significant impacts from global warming are likely, such as damage to many ecosystems, decreases in crop yields, sea level rise, and the widespread loss of coral reefs.  Beyond 2°, however, the risks are grave, such as the disintegration of the Greenland ice sheet, which would trigger an eventual 23-feet rise in sea level and displace millions of people worldwide.

The Safe Climate Act and the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Act differ in some of their provisions but share the same overall targets.  They are designed to keep temperatures below the 2° threshold and prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.  They would require that U.S. emissions return to 1990 levels by 2020 and are reduced to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.  This gives us 15 years to deploy the cleaner technologies that we already have but are not using much, such as hybrid vehicles and wind power.  After 2020, the bills would drive implementation of more advanced technologies, such as zero-energy buildings and biofuels from waste materials.

Achieving the Emission Reductions

To help achieve the emission reductions, the bills call for a greater reliance on clean, renewable energy sources, improved energy efficiency, and clean cars.  It also provides companies flexibility in meeting the pollution-reduction goals through a “cap-and-trade” program.  Specifically:

• Renewable energy standard: The bills direct the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish national standards requiring 20% of electricity to be generated from renewable energy sources in 2020.

• Energy efficiency standard: The bills would make modern technology the standard by requiring reductions in end use electricity consumption.

• Clean cars standard: The bills direct the U.S. EPA to set standards for reducing global warming emissions from motor vehicles.

• Cap-and-trade program: The bills direct EPA to set a cap on global warming emissions from the largest polluters and allow the polluters to meet the cap by buying and selling emissions allowances.