Dianne Feinstein: “I rise to say thank you to both Senator Lieberman and Senator McCain for giving this Senate the first real start to…”

“I rise to say thank you to both Senator Lieberman and Senator McCain for giving this Senate the first real start to reduce global warming. I was one who voted for the Hagel amendment, but I did so realizing it really had very little bang for the buck. This is the first real global warming bill this body will come to grips with. I think it is extraordinarily important. In real terms, passage of this bill would mean that instead of having 8 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted into the air in 2010, as would be the case if we do not pass the amendment, we will emit slightly less than 6 billion tons in 2010. That means this amendment would reduce emissions by almost 2 billion tons, or 25 percent, by the end of the decade. In order to achieve the goal, the amendment would implement a market- based emissions cap and trade system. Currently, the United States is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. We account for one-fourth of all global greenhouse gas emissions. In a single year, the average American produces the same greenhouse gas emissions as 4.5 people in Mexico or 18 people in India or 99 people in Bangladesh. In the past 200 years, since the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has risen by roughly 30 percent. If we do nothing to reduce these emissions, CO2 levels are estimated to again rise by 30 percent in only the next 50 years. Here it is on the chart.…”