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Greens Urge Strengthened NE Global Warming Compact GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES Tuesday, January 10, 2006 Contacts: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Green Party today urged state legislatures in the northeast to significantly strengthen the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) recently announced by the governors of seven states. "The proposed compact falls far short of the actions needed to reduce the devastating and accelerating impact of climate change," stated Greg Gerritt, secretary of the Green Party of Rhode Island. "The seven governors deserve praise for taking action in face of the stonewalling by both the Bush and Clinton administrations, but the public should push them to do much more." "We now urge the many environmental groups that campaigned for RGGI to take the next step and demand a more far-reaching and effective compact that places public health, the environment, and our future ahead of industry demands. We also call on Massachusetts and Rhode Island to sign on," Mr. Gerritt added. The compact took several years to negotiate and was announced six months after the initial target date. The Governors of Massachusetts and Rhode Island backed out at the last minute after objections from business lobbies, to the frustration of Greens and environmental and public health activists in those states. Greens in northeast states have called for the caps on carbon emissions by power plants to be significantly tightened; for all of the carbon emission permits (rather than the agreed upon 25%) to be auctioned off rather than given away to corporations; and for elimination of loopholes that weaken the reduction on greenhouse emissions (e.g., omitting emissions from increasing electricity imports from polluting coal plants in the Midwest). An overwhelming majority of scientists warn that the original Kyoto goal of a 5% reduction to 1991 greenhouse gas levels by 2012 is severely inadequate and urge a 70% reduction. The Green Party supports this goal, and note that RGGI only calls for stabilizing current carbon emissions by 2015 and then reducing those levels by 10% by 2020. Greens are skeptical that RGGI, which only addresses power plants, will accomplish even this modest goal. "There are many reasons why the Republicans and Democrats have shied away from such measures. First, they seriously underestimate the financial, ecological, and social harm that will be caused by global warming. Many of them contend that it'll be cheaper to suffer 'maybe a 4%' annual decrease in the Gross Domestic Product than to invest in changes to reduce climate change. Second, some believe that a limited investment in renewable energy technology will alone be enough to solve the problem, and ignore the need for lower energy consumption. Third, they're receiving campaign contributions from the energy and automobile industries that want the environmental impact costs from their operations to be paid by taxpayers rather than by the industries themselves," said Ms. Rotzler, who also serves as co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. Greens emphasized that there is no longer any serious debate among scientists about the reality of global warming, especially in light of evidence such as the shrinking ice caps, melting tundra, which releases methane gases that accelerate climate change, and a growing number of killer storms, a result of higher ocean surface temperatures. The RGGI pact would create a 'market-driven system' of tradable carbon dioxide emissions permits for hundreds of electric generators in the seven northeastern states. Each state would have its own emissions cap, and power plant operators would each be permitted to emit carbon dioxide up to a certain level. The intent is to promote the use of the cleaner plants in order to stay under the limits; operators would be allowed to sell excess allowances. A recent study commissioned by the states found that if money raised by the sale of the excess pollution allowances were invested in energy efficiency programs, consumers could save up to $108 a year by the year 2021. "We're calling for all carbon emission permits under RGGI to be auctioned off, rather than most of them to be given free to existing carbon polluters," said Mark Dunlea, former chair of the Green Party of New York State and former national coordinator of the Campaign for Safe Energy. "The hundreds of millions of dollars raised annually through the auction process would be used to offset the regressive nature of any 'energy tax', for example, through state supplements to the low-income Home Energy Assistance Program. The rest would be invested in energy efficiency, conservation, and development of renewable energy technologies." A recent report by Redefining Progress <http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/northeastRGGI.pdf> shows that auctioning off the permits rather than giving them away free would reduce the costs of the initiative by 75%. A grandfathered permit system would reduce employment, investment, and competitiveness in northeastern states, while an auctioned permit system would increase employment. MORE INFORMATION Green Party of the United States
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