Lieberman co-sponsors legislation aiming to reduce carbon dioxide

by Christine Moyer

WASHINGTON - Connecticut has some of the worst air pollution in the country even though it has the most stringent regulations on pollutants.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman is looking to other states to help clean Connecticut's air. The Connecticut Democrat and presidential candidate is cosponsoring legislation that would fight global warming - and air pollution - by reducing greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide emissions, that travel from state to state.

"It's an unfair circumstance of being downwind," said Christopher James, director of air planning for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

But Lieberman and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced this week they would ease restrictions in their bill, which has been stuck in the Senate. The bill initially aimed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the levels of the year 2000, starting in 2010, and to 1990 levels started in 2016. The senators have dropped the second phase of reductions in order to gain Senate support and bring the issue to a vote this fall.

"To truly combat the threat of global warming over the long term, our goal must be to slash greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels," Lieberman said in a statement Wednesday. "But in the interest of reaching consensus now for immediate action, Sen. McCain and I have agreed to focus on first-phase reductions and press for second-phase reductions at a later date."

Neither the initial nor the modified bill was as strict as the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty the Clinton administration negotiated but President Bush rejected.

Opponents of the Lieberman-McCain bill call it an energy tax that would raise the price of coal and oil, the two leading air pollutants.

Environmentalists, on the other hand, support swift action.

James said the legislation was "short-sighted."

"It's a problem that will take decades, if not generations, to address," he said. "It's short-sighted to not look at it beyond four or five years."

But Lieberman defended the decision saying, "With this compromise, we seek to eliminate another excuse for inaction on global warming, inaction that costs our environment, our economy and our public health dearly."

A member of Lieberman's staff said the compromise was prompted in part by a fear among some senators that decreasing carbon dioxide to 1990 levels in 13 years would hurt the coal industry as more people switch to natural gas.

The coal industry is a potent political force in some states. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush tried to pit the Clinton administration - and the campaign of then Vice President Al Gore and vice-presidential nominee Lieberman - against coal mining. West Virginia, a leading coal-producing state, voted Republican for the first time in a presidential election since 1928.

Although New Britain has more than 100 manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce contends that greenhouse gas emissions are not a problem in the city because of Connecticut's strict regulations.

Frank J. Johnson, the executive director of the Manufacturing Alliance of Connecticut, supported the move by McCain and Lieberman to scale back their legislation. "This shows a balanced approach on their part," Johnson said. "They don't want to try to push too unreal standards on the country at the cost of our economy."

There is currently no federal restriction on carbon dioxide emissions. But Connecticut joined other New England states and Eastern Canada two years ago to create a plan to combat greenhouse gases. The state of New York has adopted similar regulations, according to James, Connecticut's director of air planning.

James said the plan aims to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2010 and to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.