McCain says he would cap emissions if president

12 May 2008 22:25  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Arizona Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, said on Monday that if elected he would work with Congress to create a cap and trade emissions mandate to combat climate change.

 

Cap and trade legislation is opposed by many in the US petrochemical industry for fear that it would cause a run on domestic natural gas stocks and deplete feedstock supplies.

 

McCain, who is expected to get the Republican Party’s formal endorsement as its 2008 presidential candidate in September, told an audience in Portland, Oregon, that evidence of global warming is sufficient and US policymakers cannot hesitate to impose an emissions cap.

 

He said that as president he would work with Congress to initiate climate change legislation that would reduce US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 60% below 1990 levels by 2050.

 

“Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, or the precise timeline of global warming, we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring,” McCain said in a speech at a wind technology company.

 

He cautioned, however, that a government mandate on global warming should not impose restrictions on the marketplace.

 

“We must do this in a way that gives American businesses new incentives and new rewards to seek, instead of just giving them new taxes to pay and new orders to follow,” he said.

 

“The most direct way to achieve this is through a system that sets clear limits on all greenhouse gases, while also allowing the sale of rights to excess emissions,” he said, adding:  “This is the proposal I will submit to Congress if I am elected president - a cap and trade system to change the dynamic of our energy economy.”

 

Under a cap and trade system, emissions of greenhouse gases would be capped and the government would auction permits that would be traded among companies whose pollution releases exceed allowed limits.

 

Legislation now pending in the US Senate would impose such a cap and trade system, but that approach has been widely criticized by many in the US chemicals industry and the broader manufacturing sector as detrimental to the country’s production and economy.

 

McCain said his cap and trade plan would require “sensible reductions in greenhouse gases” but also “allow full flexibility in how industry meets that requirement.”

 

He said he would work with European allies and other nations seeking climate control measures to impose environmental cost equalization mechanisms to essentially force climate compliance by developing nations such as China and India if they otherwise fail to cooperate.

 

($1 = €0.65)

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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