House bill would cap US greenhouse gas emissions at 2000 levels

House bill would cap US greenhouse gas emissions at 2000 levels

Washington (Platts)--30Mar2004


Legislation requiring major industrial facilities, including refineries, to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions to Year 2000 levels by 2010, was slated to be
introduced in the House Tuesday. The bill is similar to legislation rejected
by the Senate in October, on a 55-43 vote. It was the first direct Senate vote
on a bill to limit US greenhouse gas emissions and its sponsors, including
Senator John McCain (Republican-Arizona), have vowed to continue to push the
bill. While supporters of the House bill acknowledge it will be difficult
bringing the measure to the House floor this session given the opposition of
House Republican leaders, the bill is supported by a bipartisan coalition of
10 Democrats and 9 Republicans, including the Republican chairmen of the House
Science Committee, Sherwood Boehlert (New York), and of the appropriations
subcommittee in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency budget, Jim
Walsh (New York).

The bill would cap US aggregate greenhouse gas emissions for the electricity,
transportation, industrial and commercial economic sectors. An entity would be
subject to the requirements of the bill if it owns at least one facility
emitting more than 10,000mt/year of greenhouse gases. The legislation would
also establish a emissions trading program. Any covered entity would be fined
for each ton of greenhouse gas emitted without a tradable allowance at three
times the market value of a ton of GHG emissions.