Q and A on the Climate Bill

Q and A on the Climate Bill appeared in a recent edition of The Washington Post and gave Post readers some much-needed background on the Waxman-Markey climate legislation which squeaked by in the House last month and now awaits Senate action in the fall.

Waxman-Markey as passed by the House would be responsible for, as David A. Fahrenthold and Steven Mufson write in their Post article, "delivering a 17 percent reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared with 2005 levels." This blogger thinks Waxman-Markey needs to be beefed up in the Senate version, since Messrs. Fahrenthold and Mufson write, "Even if the United States meets the legislation's goals for 2020, the world's total emissions would be reduced by [only] about 3 percent, according to Energy Department projections."

According to this online article, the U.S. emits 25% of the world’s greenhouse gases (GHGs). If we cut our 2005-level GHG emissions by 17 percent as of 2020, the world as a whole ought to see (one would think) a 4.25 percent reduction. If the the world's total GHG emissions are in fact reduced by only 3 percent, very likely the reason is that other countries' emissions are expected to rise between now and 2020, thus offsetting some of our reduction.

The Post article does say, "Usually emissions grow as the economy grows, so a 17 percent cut would be a huge feat for the energy industry."

"But scientists say," continue the Post reporters, "that far deeper cuts are needed to head off disaster from warming temperatures, rising sea levels and other climate changes."

This blogger thinks the "far deeper cuts" ought to be included right now, today, in the Senate's version of Waxman-Markey. The goal ought to be for the U.S. to provide at least a 4.25 percent reduction in the world's GHG emissions by 2020, based on 2005 levels of emissions.

Better still, how about having this country assert its world leadership by undertaking fully a 5 percent reduction in world greenhouse gas emissions by 2020?

If we wanted to provide a 4.25 percent cut to the world, we'd need a 24 percent cut in U.S. emissions by 2020, by my calculations. For 5 percent worldwide, a bit more than 28 percent here at home.