Y 4.P 96/10: FED-DOCS S. HRG.107-994 CLEAN AIR ACT: RISKS FROM GREENHOUSE HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON THE ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH MARCH 13, 2002 Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works DEPOSITORY APR 3 0 2004 STANFORD UNIVERSITY 83-683 PDF U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 2004 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office CONTENTS Page MARCH 13, 2002 OPENING STATEMENTS Campbell, Hon. Ben Nighthorse, U.S. Senator from the State of Colorado WITNESSES ..... Baliunas, Sallie, astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astro- 19 Report, Climate Research, Vol. 18:259-275, 2001, Modeling climatic ef- fects of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions: unknown uncertain- Summary, Addendum #1, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 41, 11-21 (1990), by Springer-Verlag, Mean Seasonal and Spatial Vari- Pielke, Roger A., Jr., associate professor, Center for Science and Technology IV Pielke, Roger A., Jr., associate professor, Center for Science and Technology Senator Jeffords Senator Smith Senator Voinovich Rowland, Sherwood F., Donald Bren research professor of chemistry and earth science, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA Page 100 94 98 99 10 Prepared statement 45 Report, Climate Change Science, An Analysis of Some Key Questions, 47-82 Whittaker, Martin, managing director, Innovest, Richmond Hill, Ontario, 20 CLEAN AIR ACT: RISKS FROM GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2002 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:34 a.m. in room 406, Senate Dirksen Building, Hon. James M. Jeffords (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Senators Jeffords, Voinovich, Smith, Chafee, and Corzine. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES M. JEFFORDS, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF VERMONT Senator JEFFORDS. Good morning. The hearing will come to order. Today we will hear testimony on the economic and environmental risk of increasing greenhouse gas emissions. It is important to note that the hearing is not a debate about whether manmade emissions are causing warming. For the time being, that question has been settled by the National Academy of Sciences. An Academy report from June 2001 said, “Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and sub-surface ocean temperatures to rise, and human-induced warming and associated sea level rises are expected to continue through the 21st century." We are fortunate to have today a witness here who has worked on that report. What the committee will review is the magnitude of the possible injuries or losses that may be caused by this warming. I urge the witnesses to stay on that topic and help us assess the risk related to increasing greenhouse gas emissions. One year ago today, the President formally notified the world and the Senate of his decision to unilaterally abandon the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, he also abandoned his campaign promise to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, or the fourth "P" from powerplants. That was a serious blow to a sensible, market-based approach to reducing carbon emissions. As a result, the country has no actual policy in place to achieve a real emissions reduction target, so emissions will continue unabated. This is happening despite our international commitment in the Rio Agreement to reduce U.S. emissions to 1990 levels. Voluntary measures are no substitute and have failed to do more than slightly slow the rate of growth. |