Huntsman appears in climate ad

On the national level, a pending bill before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called "America's Climate Security Act of 2007," aims to reduce total U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by as much as 19 percent below the 2005 level by 2020 and by as much as 63 percent below the 2005 level by 2050, according to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn. Lieberman and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., are the co-authors of the bill.

Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has held more than 20 hearings on global warming since the Democrats took control of Congress in January. She has said she would like to bring the bill to a vote of the full committee by Dec. 6. But there is no action scheduled after that, and while she wants to finish the bill before Congress adjourns for the year, the lawmakers' calendar is running out of days.

"I face this challenge with hope, and not fear," Boxer said at a hearing on the bill this week. "By facing this challenge now, we can maximize our chances of avoiding the most dangerous effects of climate change."

But the committee's top Republican, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, has strong concerns about the bill, primarily over the "hundreds of billions of dollars" the bill's provisions may cost, including an increase in energy costs to ratepayers.

"The fact is that this bill is not ready for prime time," Inhofe said this week. "It appears structured to fail."

"We should not pass a law if it harms the American economy or if developing countries are not part of the equation," Inhofe said. "This bill fails on both those fronts and should be rejected."

On the Web

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., along with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, appear in a nationwide television advertising campaign to urge Congress to pass legislation quickly to curb global warming. To view the ad on the Web, go to: strategicperceptioninc.com/preview/demo/edf-101t.html

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E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com