[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 168 (Thursday, December 6, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12554-S12555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. McCAIN (for himself and Mr. Brownback):
  S. 1781. A bill to direct the Secretary of Commerce to establish a 
voluntary national registry system for greenhouse gases trading among 
industry, to make changes to United States Global Change Research 
Program, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation.
  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I, rise to introduce the Emission 
Reductions Incentive Act of 2001. I thank Senator Brownback for his co-
sponsorship and his cooperation in drafting this bill, along with his 
commitment to addressing this growing problem.
  Earlier this year, I announced intentions to consider the 
establishment of a ``cap and trade'' system for carbon dioxide 
emissions. I am continuing to work with Senator Lieberman on this 
effort. However, the bill which I am introducing today is not in lieu 
of that commitment, but rather in support of it.
  The bill proposes the establishment of a national voluntary registry 
for entities to register carbon emissions reductions. The registry 
would support current voluntary trading practices in private industry 
and other non-governmental organizations. Over the past years, the 
Commerce Committee has heard testimony from several organizations on 
their efforts conduct trading programs internally or across a small 
segment of industry. This registry bill will aid those efforts greatly 
by establishing a national system whereby these companies may be able 
to participate and be assured that a ton of carbon purchased is indeed 
a ton of carbon.
  Establishment of the registry would also require the development of 
certain standards for measuring, verifying and reporting emission 
reductions to the registry. I believe that with these procedures in 
place, the registry would be able to withstand any future requirements 
imposed by a mandatory ``cap and trade'' system. The bill would also 
provide for consideration of credits realized under this program 
against any future mandatory system.
  The bill also proposed changes to the US Global Climate Change 
Program, USGCRP. It requires a new strategic plan for the next 10 
years. The bill would provide for dedicated management to support the 
interagency USGCRP and have this office report to the Director of the 
Office of Science and Technology Policy. We feel this will provide a 
needed channel to the White House for the Federal scientific community 
to be heard. We have also asked the office to work with the agencies' 
development activities.
  The bill proposed additional changes to the Partnership for New 
Generation Vehicles, PHGV, program and provides additional incentives 
for the licensing of technologies. I hope that we can increase the 
deployment of technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 
providing further incentives to Federal employees, those who are 
ultimately responsible for the transfer of the research results. The 
National Research Council recently made recommendations on the PNGV 
program, a cooperative research and development program between the 
Federal Government and the US Council for Automotive Research. The bill 
requires the Department of Commerce to implement many of those 
recommendations.
  As we all know, more than 160 countries recently reached an agreement 
on the Kyoto Protocol, which would require industrialized nations to 
reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. There are many US companies that 
operate facilities in other countries. These facilities will have to 
meet local emissions requirements. The bill requires the Secretary of 
Commerce to study the effects that a ratified treaty will have on the 
US industry and its ability to compete globally.
  Again, I thank Senator Brownback for help on this piece of 
legislation. I understand that other members of the Commerce Committee 
have recently introduced legislation in this area and look forward to 
working with them on a comprehensive package.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, I am please to join Senator McCain 
today in introducing the Emission Reductions Incentive Act of 2001. 
This bill will put into place a voluntary registry for greenhouse gas, 
GHG, reductions house in the Department of Commerce. Furthermore, the 
bill establishes structure for the independent measurement and 
verification of GHG reductions. This is an important step in providing 
an incentive for companies who wish to reduce their emissions, and it 
will provide assurance that companies who take positive action on 
climate change today will be rewarded in the future. All this can be 
accomplished with barely any cost to the government, since it will be 
private, third party groups that undertake the burden to measure, 
verify and prove actual greenhouse gas emission reductions.
  There are those who wonder why such a measure is needed, given the 
fact that there is an existing registry in the Department of Energy and 
the uncertainty on the climate change issue. First, the new registry 
will only hold information that has been independently verified. Like 
the current registry, this new registry would be completely voluntary. 
However, unlike the DOE program, this registry will focus on keeping 
track of proven greenhouse gas reductions, and will therefore, 
encourage more companies to undertake measures to reduce emissions 
since they will have the ability to defend these reductions as real if 
future regulations are put in to place. Also, since this registry will 
be housed in the Department of Commerce and verified by independent 
parties, it treats the issue as an investment or transaction between 
companies to limit risk, rather than an environmental regulation.
  Several utilities and other companies who emit high levels of carbon 
dioxide have expressed real concern that they need certainty to be able 
to plan for the life of new power plants and investment decisions which 
will last for 20 years or more. Currently, there is no certainty with 
regard to how the climate change issue will be handled. This means 
companies must plan for an uncertain future which leads to undue 
expense. This bill will allow companies to decide for themselves how 
much action they need to take, and provide a way of taking out an 
insurance policy, of sorts, on the climate change issue. This is 
important because we need more investment in energy infrastructure, 
more clean coal plants and natural gas plants. Yet these new plants 
won't move forward if they fear being hit with a high carbon tad in the 
next 5-10 years.
  This bill offers industry a way to make investments in GHG reductions 
or carbon sequestration offsets gradually, building up credits that 
could be used down the road if regulations are put into place. While 
there is no ``one-for-one'' trade in on these credits, there would be a 
government certified stamp of approval on early actions to reduce 
greenhouse gases--which any future regulations would have to account 
for
  Second, there are those who argue that the science is still unsettled 
with regard to the climate change issue, and that we should not move 
toward costly measures which will punish industry for a problem that is 
still not fully understood. Actually, this is the very reason why we 
should establish a voluntary, but measured and verified registry now. 
This bill given industry the opportunity to experiment and get credit 
for pro-active measures that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions 
without unduly burdening energy consumers. New and better technology is 
the key to solving this issue, but why would a company employ such 
technology now with the uncertainty surrounding how this issue will be 
addressed? They could in fact, be punished for such actions if later 
regulations are put into place which do not account for reductions that 
were already taken. This is a free-market approach to reward and 
encourage responsible industry to continue and even make a market out 
of reducing greenhouse gases. This registery will help establish and 
encourage the most cost-effective ways to tackle this problem while 
also finding where difficulties may lie.
  We can not shrink from difficult challenges, nor should we overreact. 
When there is the opportunity to allow market force to work on a 
problem, we should most definitely encourage that process. I am pleased 
to be joining my

[[Page S12555]]

friend from Arizona in introducing this legislation and look forward to 
pursuing this policy during the upcoming energy debate.
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