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Friday, Aug. 3, 2007

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WASHINGTON -- Senators are lining up behind a carbon trading plan to slow global warming, with the aim of cutting 70 percent of U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 2050.

The approach draws on the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol, the controversial system begun in 2005 but rejected by President Bush. That accord has produced little overall reduction in greenhouse gases but has enriched some traders with huge profits.

Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., outlined a plan Thursday to create a federal Climate Change Credit Corp. to auction pollution credits among electric utilities, transportation and other industries. A new government board could give more credits to companies suffering too much economically.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called the proposal a breakthrough that could produce a bill by the end of this year.

But the panel's senior Republican, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, attacked it as unworkable.

"Carbon cap-and-trade legislation will impose the largest tax increase ever on the American people without any measurable climate benefits," he said.

Environmentalists' reaction was mixed. The Union of Concerned Scientists' Alden Meyer said the bill is too lenient on polluters and should aim for an 80 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2050 to prevent global warming's worst effects.

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But Steve Cochran of Environmental Defense called it "a path forward for international action."

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is preparing to offer a bill on climate change this fall. Many House members also favor a "cap-and-trade" program for gradually reducing carbon dioxide pollution. A similar program in the 1990s managed to reduce acid rain.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is skeptical of that approach. He has suggested the only real way to reduce greenhouse gases significantly is to tax them, say with a 50-cents-a-gallon increase in federal gasoline taxes. Americans won't buy that, he said.

© 2007 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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