A matter of time

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

President Bush’s response to global warming has been to deny it and give industries the option of denying it, too, by insisting that any efforts they undertake to reduce greenhouse gas emissions be voluntary.

Fortunately, such timid leadership does not characterize all of Washington. In the fall, congressional Democrats and a few Republicans got behind a long-awaited global warming bill — America’s Climate Security Act — introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va.

After revisions, the bill is being debated this week in the Senate. The bill proposes nothing less than the beginning of a monumental energy shift — away from fossil fuels and toward alternative energy sources, and away from guzzling energy as if there were no tomorrow and toward energy efficiency and conservation.

A major goal of the bill is to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 70 percent over the next 40 years. There is widespread agreement among leading scientists that greenhouse gases emitted by cars, power plants, refineries and factories are causing the Earth to become warmer, and that warming, if not reversed or considerably slowed, could lead to life-threatening environmental changes.

Under the bill’s major provision, the federal government would limit emissions in descending amounts each year until the 40-year goal has been met. To enforce this, it would issue permits in amounts matching the cap and polluting industries would be required to buy them. If industries needed to exceed their allowable emissions, they could trade for other companies’ permits.

This would be a major departure from past and current practice, which allows companies to largely think of the air as free and theirs to pollute at will. It is such a major departure, in fact, that the bill is probably ahead of its time. Most Senate watchers are saying it will not pass.

Yet the bill has merit because it signifies that Congress is treating global warming as a reality and taking it seriously. As the effects of global warming mount, a bill similar to this one is almost certain to pass in the near future.