Historic Global Warming Bill Proposed in Senate

Congress is getting serious about tackling global warming.

The Warner-Lieberman climate bill, introduced yesterday, will be the template the Senate will use to debate the nation's strategy for combating global warming, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) wants bipartisan support before she tries to pass any legislation through the Environment and Public Works committee, according to McClatchy Newspapers.

The bill, authored by Sens. John Warner (R-Va.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), would aim for 60% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

A consensus among many scientists and advocates is that 80% cuts are needed, and some -- including Al Gore and Boxer -- have suggested that 90% cuts may be needed in industrialized nations.

The bill would lay groundwork for cuts of any size, however, by establishing a cap on carbon emissions and a system for trading pollution credits among industries. The credits would be assigned to companies based on their past emissions, which Friends of Earth has described as the biggest corporate giveaway in history. Other alternatives include an auction, which is favored by some of the Democratic presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson among them.

Many advocates for action on climate change agree that this bill is a starting point for the important task of setting some limit on the amount of greenhouse gases the U.S. pumps into the atmosphere. In that, it is an historic point.

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