Global Warming Update - Winter 2009
Contents
- Summary
- Working Toward a Clean Energy Economy
- New Champion on Key House Committee
- Western Climate Initiative
- California Global Warming Plan
Program Updates
Clean Energy
Clean Vehicles
Food & Agriculture
Global Warming
Invasive Species
Nuclear Weapons & Global Security
Scientific Integrity
Summary
More than 12,000 UCS activists have already signed a petition urging the new administration to work with Congress on a comprehensive clean energy plan that will curb global warming and grow the economy. UCS will deliver the petition to the president-elect at the start of his term to ensure he follows through on his campaign promises to swiftly advance strong, science-based, clean energy and climate policies. UCS supporters on the West coast also worked to ensure regional global warming plans contain strong provisions to rein in carbon dioxide pollution.
Working Toward a Clean Energy Economy
As we start the new year and prepare for a new president and Congress, climate solutions must be one of the nation’s top priorities. The president-elect has recognized that building a clean energy economy will break our dependence on oil, put Americans back to work, and cut global warming pollution. But we know from experience that real change doesn’t just happen, and we cannot underestimate the power of the coal and oil industries and the legislators who support them.
UCS activists are helping to build critical momentum for clean energy solutions that will curb global warming. More than 12,000 UCS activists have already signed a petition urging the new administration to work with Congress on a comprehensive plan that will:
- Move to 100 percent clean electricity
- Cut our dependence on oil in half
- Create 5 million new clean energy jobs
- Reduce global warming pollution by at least 80 percent
UCS is pushing for bold and effective action from Congress as well as the new administration and we will be especially focused on ensuring science-based global warming pollution reduction targets are in any final legislation.
A recent UCS report shows that the United States must cut its heat-trapping emissions on the order of 20 percent below today’s levels by 2020 and at least 80 percent by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of global warming. In the spring, more than 1,700 of our nation’s most prominent scientists and economists affirmed the urgency and necessity for deep reduction targets in a call to action.
With independent technical and scientific analyses and expertise, and a powerful network of scientists and economists, UCS is poised to educate policy makers to ensure that any climate legislation establishes strong targets and requires the administration and Congress to react rapidly if scientific reviews by the National Academy of Sciences show the United States must do more to help avert the worst effects of climate change.
We’ll also help our activists stay engaged at this critical time by letting you know when key votes are coming up so you can weigh in with your members of Congress.
New Champion on Key House Committee
While the U.S. Senate made tremendous gains in advancing strong climate legislation this past year, the process had been largely stalled on the House side of Congress. Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) of the key Energy and Commerce Committee did not move far beyond hearings and policy papers. In November, Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) stunned Capitol Hill with his successful challenge for the chairmanship. Although a long-time climate champion, Waxman will need support from UCS and our activists to secure the support of other committee members to advance strong, science-based climate legislation
Western Climate Initiative
In September, seven western states and four Canadian provinces—working together in the Western Climate Initiative (WCI)—issued final recommendations for a regional plan to reduce global warming pollution. The WCI adds further momentum to national and international climate action efforts. While this regional cooperation is important, especially when it includes states that traditionally have not been active on global warming, the WCI plan will need to be significantly strengthened in order to be effective. Nearly 2,000 UCS supporters wrote their governors about strengthening the plan, and UCS will continue to work with advocates from across the West who are focused on ensuring the WCI will effectively reduce global warming pollution.
California Global Warming Plan
For nearly two years, since the California legislature passed a landmark bill to reduce global warming pollution to 1990 levels by 2020, UCS has been working to ensure that an effective mix of strong climate policies are included in the state’s plan to reach that goal. We were pleased that, in December, the state adopted a strong, comprehensive plan in which the vast majority of the pollution reductions come from smart, innovative policies that will promote renewable energy, recycling, efficiency, and cleaner cars and trucks.
The plan also recommends using a cap-and-trade program—a market-based method of lowering global warming pollution—to achieve about 20 percent of the needed reductions. UCS activists and staff worked hard to strengthen the proposed cap-and-trade program, particularly in two key areas:
Auctioning Pollution Allowances
UCS, alongside a coalition of environmental, labor, and health groups, waged a major campaign to ensure that allowances for global warming pollution are auctioned instead of given away to polluters for free. When the draft cap-and-trade plan was first released in June, it recommended allowing up to 90 percent of the allowances to be given away for free. Auctioning the permits is more fair and efficient and avoids windfall profits to polluters. The California Air Resources Board ended up changing the plan to include language that UCS wrote, stating that California expects to auction significantly more than 10 percent of the allowances and to transition to 100 percent auctioning.Offsets
UCS took the lead in a coalition effort to tighten loopholes in the plan created by an over-reliance on offsets—credits based on estimated reductions from projects in other areas that polluters can buy in place of making pollution reductions themselves. UCS convinced California Air Resources Board (CARB) members that a program without strict limits on offsets would be less effective. It could lead to less technological innovation and fewer emission reductions in the highest polluting sectors all the while counting on often unreliable reductions somewhere else. The board ultimately required that the state do further studies on limiting the use of offsets.
Over the next two years, CARB will develop detailed regulations to implement all of the various components of the plan. UCS will continue to engage scientists, economists, and other technical and academic experts in this complex policy-making process as part of our campaign for strong and effective climate policies to reduce the pollution that causes global warming. We’ll continue asking all of our supporters to push CARB to keep the plan as strong as possible.
