Russ Feingold: “I will be supporting the McCain- Lieberman climate change legislation, and I want to detail the reasons for my support.…”

“I will be supporting the McCain- Lieberman climate change legislation, and I want to detail the reasons for my support. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the United States agreed to a goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000, and we became a party to the Framework Convention on Climate Change. As a Member of the Senate, I have supported this agreement. In order to meet this commitment, our Government has engaged in a wide range of voluntary programs. But, despite these efforts, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 14 percent between 1990 and 2000. We should take additional nationwide steps to meet this goal, and I believe this legislation is an appropriate first step. In this legislation, my colleague from Connecticut, Senator Lieberman, and my colleague from Arizona, Senator McCain, would implement Phase I only of their broader bill on greenhouse gases, S. 139, the Climate Stewardship Act of 2003. This legislation will return the Nation's emissions to 2000 levels by 2010. It will do so by reducing emissions in the short term while providing market-based flexibility to minimize the cost to industry. I continue to believe that we must take action on the national level now to slow the progression of climatic change. The costs of inaction are prohibitive across the country and in my home State of Wisconsin. Wisconsin's top officials acknowledged that climate change was a concern years ago.…”