Contents

1. Summary
2. U.S. Senate: Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act
3. U.S. House
4. Eighty Percent Climate Bills
5. Looking Ahead

Summary

With the help of Union of Concerned Scientists supporters, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act—a promising bill with bipartisan support and a strong framework for reducing global warming pollution—successfully passed out of committee and will now go before the full Senate. No other climate legislation of this scope has ever gotten this far in the federal legislative process! In 2008 we will continue to work to strengthen key elements of this bill and analyze the many other pieces of climate legislation currently under consideration.

U.S. SENATE: Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act

In October 2007, two members of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA), took a positive, bi-partisan step to help fight global warming by introducing the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191). Over the following two months, UCS members and activists sent more than 18,000 letters and made nearly 1,000 phone calls to EPW Committee members, urging them to support the promising bill but also make the improvements necessary to prevent the worst effects of global warming. Their efforts helped to secure some helpful changes and pass the bill out of the EPW Committee—the furthest climate legislation of this scope has ever moved toward becoming law. UCS will leverage this tremendous momentum to strengthen the bill on the Senate floor. Specifically, our top priorities are to:

• ensure sufficient emission reduction targets by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to adjust the targets and take any other action needed if the National Academies of Science finds that we are not on track to avoid dangerous warming; and
• eliminate free emission allowances for polluters, or at least reduce them significantly. Giving away the allowances would create windfall profits for polluters, while auctioning them will generate more revenue for public programs and promote investment in clean energy technologies.

U.S. HOUSE

Now that the Energy Bill has been signed into law, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is turning its attention to climate legislation. However, we expect the committee’s initial proposal may be weaker than the Senate’s Lieberman-Warner bill. In particular, the committee chairman, Representative John Dingell (D-MI), is likely to support coal subsidies and other harmful provisions. In the coming months, UCS will be mobilizing activists to encourage the committee to draft the strongest bill possible.

Eighty Percent Climate Bills

Over the last year, UCS activists have sent letters to their lawmakers urging their support for the Waxman Safe Climate Act (HR 1590) in the House and the Sanders-Boxer Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309) in the Senate. Both these strong climate bills would ensure the needed 80 percent emission reductions by 2050. UCS supporters have helped raise cosponsorship for the Safe Climate Act to 146 representatives! This strong support will put critical pressure on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to craft a strong global warming bill.

Looking Ahead

Both chambers of Congress are expected to consider global warming legislation in the months ahead. The Lieberman-Warner bill will hit the floor of the full Senate for debate and House leadership has committed to move on its version of a bill. With help from UCS activists, global warming has finally gained significant attention on Capitol Hill, as evidenced by the considerable number of climate bills that have been introduced. This year, we will ask our activists to keep sending their federal lawmakers a critical message: we need a strong, science-based climate bill that reduces pollution 80 percent by 2050 to prevent the worst effects of global warming. UCS will continue to monitor congressional action on climate bills and update our activists when there’s an opportunity to take action. Together we will work to ensure a safe climate for our children.