Washington, DC -- Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) today joined Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and other Democratic House members in introducing sweeping legislation that would require a dramatic cut in the emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The Safe Climate Act is a comprehensive measure that would require an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. Hinchey sponsored almost identical legislation last year in the 109th Session of Congress, but said he felt the bill had a much better chance of passing now that Democrats control Congress.
"The climate of the world is changing dramatically due to greenhouse gas emissions and unless we take swift and strong action to change course, we are going to experience irreversible consequences of incomprehensible proportions," Hinchey said. "The United States has the obligation and responsibility to step forward and become the world leader in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and stopping global warming. The issue of global warming is not a problem to be dealt with 50 or 100 years from now. Global warming must be addressed today because it is an immediate problem that is only going to get exponentially worse if left unaddressed."
Hinchey and his colleagues noted that the scientific community has thoroughly studied climate change and arrived at an overwhelming consensus that humans are in fact causing global warming and the climate change resulting from this warming poses very serious risks to the United States and the entire world. A global temperature increase of only a few degrees Fahrenheit could cause the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and polar ice caps, raising sea levels by more than 20 feet. Such melting and rises in sea level would wreak havoc throughout the world's heavily populated coastal areas.
Scientists have already observed serious global warming impacts around the world, including increases in heat waves and droughts as well as the growing intensity and frequency of serious storm events. Additionally, scientists have documented other impacts, including rising sea levels, rapid retreats of glaciers and polar ice, declines in mountain snow pack, increases in drought-related wildfires, stronger hurricanes, ocean acidification, extensive coral bleaching, and the migrations and shifts in the yearly cycles of plants and migration of species.
The legislation introduced today would set targets for greenhouse gas reductions and require the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy to establish national standards that will freeze greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 at the 2009 levels. Beginning in 2011, emissions would be cut by roughly 2 percent a year until 2020. After 2020, the reduction targets would increase to 5 percent each year until 2050, when emissions would be reduced from 1990 levels by 80 percent.
The bill would allow a cap and trade program to create an overall reduction in emissions as well as require specific increases in electricity generated by renewable energy sources and use of energy efficiency technology. It would also require the EPA to set new fuel economy standards for automobiles that are at least as stringent as California standards, which are some of the toughest in the nation. Finally, it would require a periodic review by the National Academy of Sciences to gauge the country's progress toward curbing the production of greenhouse pollutants and avoiding dangerous climate change.
