Don't Allow Global Warming Pollution to Increase for Decades

Dear Senator,

Senator George Voinovich recently proposed legislation that would allow global warming pollution to increase for decades. Even though the proposal is being pitched as a way to address global warming, its real impact would be to block serious global warming action this year.

I urge you to oppose the Voinovich proposal.

The proposal calls for weak, non-binding emissions reduction benchmarks - current levels in 2020 and 1990 levels in 2030 - while providing taxpayer-funded subsidies for favored technologies.

The Environmental Protection Agency could establish a cap and trade system to reduce emissions - but it could suspend the cap on a whim, and it would come with an astonishingly low $5 per ton "safety valve" - an artificial price control on emissions reductions.

In the meantime, the proposal would take away state authority - confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA - to control global warming pollution. Dozens of states across the country, including California, Florida, and the Northeast members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, have set ambitious emissions reduction targets.

This so-called global warming proposal is nothing more than a detailed prescription for doing nothing. It's time to get serious about global warming. I urge you to oppose the Voinovich bill.

Thank you.