Today is the big day. Senators Warner and Lieberman announced their climate bill (The Climate Security Act of 2007) which may be the only “passable” climate bill to come out Congress this year or next year for that matter. CCAN, as a key climate organization in Virginia, would like to thank Senator Warner for his efforts on drafting climate legislation and doing a 180 on this issue in Congress. HOWEVER, after assessing the meat of the bill, it is clear that there is no true LEADER in Congress pushing an AGGRESSIVE climate pollution reduction bill. We are staring in the face of a true climate crisis, and there is no movement on the only piece of climate legislation that will really make a difference (Sanders-Boxer Bill or the Safe Climate Act in the House). Here are our concerns and critiques of the Warner-Lieberman bill in a nutshell (with help from our friends at USPIRG and Friends of the Earth):

• The bill’s climate pollution reduction targets are NOT in line with current global warming scientific projections. The pollution caps in the bill aim to reduce total U.S. global warming emissions by about 11% by 2020 and by just over 50% by 2050. According to the current science, the United States must reduce its total global warming emissions by at least 15% by 2020 and by at least 80% by 2050. Period.

• The bill also allows many polluters to opt out of REAL climate pollution reduction techologies at their facilities by buying “offsets”. The bill currently allows companies to exceed their pollution limits by paying sources not covered by the program to reduce emissions. nsuring that a ton of pollution from such “offsets” equals a ton of real reductions is a major challenge. In addition, offsets delay the transition to cleaner technology that will be needed to achieve deep future cuts in emissions. Under the bill, a company could theoretically meet its entire 2020 pollution-reduction requirement through offsets. The number of offset reductions allowed under the bill must be significantly lowered.

• The bill gives hundreds of billions of dollars to polluters for free, including the COAL industry, which will create windfall profits, and take vital resources away from America’s transition to a clean energy future. A Friends of the Earth analysis found that the coal industry in particular stands to benefit from this legislation, precisely because it is currently the industry most responsible for global warming pollution. Depending on market conditions, the coal industry could receive permits worth up to $231 billion in the first year alone, 48 percent of the total permit allocation. It could then sell or “trade” its permits to others for their cash value, or it could emit at no cost carbon that less fortunate industries would have to pay to emit.

For more analysis please read the Friends of the Earth press release and USPIRG’s press release