Feinstein Unveils Democrats' Plan to Cut Greenhouse Gas

[Beaverhausen]

Feinstein Unveils Democrats' Plan to Cut Greenhouse Gas
By Carl T. Hall and Jane Kay
The San Francisco Chronicle

Friday 25 August 2006

Sen. Dianne Feinstein offered a new Democratic outline Thursday night of a plan to attack global warming in the next session of Congress - and put political opponents on the defensive headed into the fall campaign season.

In a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, California's senior senator unveiled a legislative package she intends to introduce when Congress reconvenes in January. The bills would require carmakers to improve mileage and would coax power producers to meet emission standards, while extending California-style green-technology programs nationwide.

"There now is a scientific consensus that global warming is happening and we can't stop it," Feinstein said during an interview. "The effort we have to make is to restrict it."

Parts of her speech touched on legislation already introduced, such as a requirement that cars, sport utility vehicles and light trucks get another 10 miles per gallon within 10 years.

But Feinstein also called for new provisions, in particular a proposal to bring agriculture and forest managers into a market system for greenhouse gas emissions known as "cap and trade." This would allow farmers and landowners who plant trees or convert crops into bio-fuels to earn emission credits that could be sold to companies that exceed emission limits.

That could help alter the politics of the climate change debate in farm states and perhaps in some corporate circles, although coal producers have made clear that they will fight any program along the lines that Feinstein is proposing.


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more at truthout. If I try and post the link my computer will go dead. long story...

[mom cat]

1. Article posted in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2475712

[Beaverhausen]

2. oops- I missed it there

:hi:

[phantom power]

3. Heh, "coax" them to meet standards.

I'm just spitballing here, but what if you made them obey the goddamned law, like the rest of us?

Would that be too harsh?