Subject: EEE会議（地球温暖化：米国議会の動き）
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 21:35:41 +0900
From: "kkaneko" <kkaneko@eagle.ocn.ne.jp>

各位

地球温暖化問題に対する米国政府の最近の動きが気になっていましたところ、
１５日付けNewYorkTimesの社説によれば、米議会の上院で、Joseph Lieberman
（コネチカット州選出）とJohn McCain（アリゾナ州選出、上院商務委員会委
員長）という２名の有力議員が近日中に新しい法案を提出する予定で、同法案
では、電力会社及びその他すべての関係企業に対し二酸化炭素（CO2)の排出削
減を義務付けるとともに、排出権取引など市場ベースでの経済的措置を盛り込
んでおり、京都議定書で米国に課せられた規制より甘いとはいえ、かなり厳し
い内容となっているので、その成立が環境保護グループのみならず環境先進派
の企業（アルコア、BPなど）からも強く期待されている由です。詳細について
は次の社説でどうぞ。
金子熊夫

*****************************************

New York Times, January 15, 2003

New Players on Global Warming

Given the Bush administration's inert approach to global warming, the
best hope for getting a start on the problem this year lies with the
Senate. The prospect that something will actually happen there
improved greatly this week with the introduction of a bipartisan bill
bearing the signatures of two marquee sponsors, Joseph Lieberman of
Connecticut and John McCain of Arizona.

The bill provides an economywide approach to cutting emissions of
greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, that threaten to disrupt the
earth's climate in environmentally destructive ways. It would require
industrial sources to scale back emissions and would also establish a
market-based system of emissions trading, modeled on the successful
1990 acid rain program, to encourage innovation and help polluting
industries meet their targets at the lowest possible cost.

These targets are more modest than America's obligations under the
Kyoto Protocol, the agreement on climate change signed by the Clinton
administration in 1997 and rejected as too costly by President Bush.
Kyoto has since been ratified by about 100 countries. But given the
administration's hostility, even the most aggressive environmentalists
in this country would be happy just to establish clear goals and
provide incentives for all the big polluters to begin getting a grip
on their emissions.

The McCain-Lieberman initiative is a good place to start. There are
other measures on Capitol Hill that address global warming, including
a strong bill sponsored by Senator James Jeffords of Vermont that
would also impose new limits on other major pollutants that cause smog
and acid rain. But these bills are aimed almost exclusively at the
electric utilities, whereas McCain-Lieberman is widespread in its
application. It also enjoys the support of the major advocacy groups
on this issue, as well as that of dozens of progressive companies like
Alcoa and British Petroleum that are making emissions reductions in
advance of what they are certain will eventually be mandatory targets.

The bill's strongest feature, however, may be its authorship. Mr.
Lieberman supported Kyoto and is committed to aggressive action. Mr.
McCain is a relatively new ally to the cause, and an indispensable
one. As the new chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, where he
commands a majority of like-minded Democrats and moderate Republicans,
he has an excellent chance of bringing a useful bill to the Senate
floor. The same cannot be said of the other bills like Mr. Jeffords's,
which are lodged in the Environment and Public Works Committee, a
panel now led by the archconservative James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

Though it's hard to predict how this will play out, there has clearly
been a major attitudinal change, even among Republicans, since 1997,
when the Senate approved a resolution expressing doubts about the
direction the Kyoto talks were then taking. Many legislators are
deeply troubled by reports of shrinking glaciers, dying coral reefs
and other ecological changes linked to warming. And many of these same
lawmakers ・not least Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a co-sponsor of
the 1997 resolution ・have lost patience with Mr. Bush's
let's-wait-for-more-research stance. The time for the McCain-Lieberman
approach may well be at hand.