The recent Senate floor debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act ended any prospect for comprehensive global warming legislation in 2008. But that doesn’t mean Congress should close the books on global warming until next January. There is still time to take targeted but vital measures that lay the groundwork for the deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that will hopefully be enacted into law in 2009.
A promising candidate for congressional action is the creation of a non-governmental early deployment fund, funded by fees on electricity sales, which would invest in technologies for carbon capture and storage, or CCS, systems at coal-fired power generation plants. This concept is embodied in H.R.6258 , the Carbon Capture and Storage Early Deployment Act, introduced by Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) and a bipartisan group of co-sponsors earlier this week. There is considerable room for improvement in the Boucher bill but it provides a starting point that Congress should build on without delay.
CCS technology is crucial for reducing the carbon footprint of coal combustion, which accounts for over 50 percent of our electricity and is the largest source of CO2 emissions in the United States and many other countries, especially China. Technical experts are optimistic that CCS will enable the great bulk of CO2 generated during coal combustion to be captured before its release into the atmosphere and then safely sequestered in secure underground formations. Under the recently proposed Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act (H.R. 6186), introduced by Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), CCS would be required for all new coal-fired power plants.
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