Climate Security Act Will Benefit Alaskans

June 2008 - The U.S. Senate will soon debate the Climate Security Act, a bipartisan bill cosponsored by Senators Lieberman (I-Vt.) and Warner (R-Va.). Nationwide, the CSA will reduce global warming pollution, assist low and middle income families with energy costs, and recharge our economy by investing in a clean energy future. Here in Alaska, the CSA will provide a huge dividend estimated at over $1 billion annually at least $50 billion in total - to address the severe impacts of climate change in our state. But we need our Senators' support to make this happen.
 
Alaska is known as ground zero for climate change impacts. Threatened fish and wildlife species like salmon and polar bears, thawing permafrost damaging roads, buildings and pipelines, coastal villages facing relocation, disappearing sea ice and glaciers, and increased forest pestilence and wildfires are among countless symptoms of the fact that the planet is warming, and more so in northern latitudes than elsewhere. Alaska has warmed at four times the rate of the U.S. average over the last fifty years.
 
It is also abundantly clear that humans are contributing to the warming process, primarily by emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; the more CO₂ in the air, the more heat is retained rather than radiating into space. With international scientific consensus firmly established on this point, the question is how exactly should we reduce emissions, by how much, and by what timeframe?
 
The Climate Security Act would establish an emissions cap and trade system for carbon, like the successful Acid Rain program does for other air pollutants. At a basic level, it works like this: starting in 2012, total U.S. carbon emissions are capped at the 2005 level, and this cap decreases by 1.8% annually until 2050. Emission "allowances," i.e., the right to pollute a specified amount of CO₂ in a given year, are traded on the market, helping industry meet the cap as efficiently as possible.
 
Scientists say we must reduce our CO₂ emissions by approximately 80% by mid-century to avoid the most severe impacts, which is manageable if we begin very soon. Leading labor, faith, conservation, sportsmen, public health, and other national organizations endorse this target generally, and the Climate Security Act specifically. The U.S. Climate Action Partnership, comprised of industry giants such as GE, DuPont, BP, Ford and many others, also supports an emissions reduction target of 60-80% by 2050 via a cap and trade system. While there are still some skeptics, there is widespread support for both the emission reduction target and the means of achieving it.
 
The CSA would reduce U.S. CO₂ emissions from sources subject to the cap by about 70% by 2050. Because many of the emission allowances will be auctioned each year, the CSA creates a substantial revenue stream and allocates hundreds of billions of dollars to developing clean energy technologies, assisting low- and middle-income families with energy costs, and adapting to global warming impacts.
 
Regarding the latter, the bill provides a lion's share of this "adaptation" funding to Alaska in recognition of the disproportionate impacts we experience here in the north tens of billions of dollars over the course of the program. Despite working with the bill's sponsors, conservation groups and others to obtain this funding, Alaska's senators do not currently support the bill.
 
The primary objection appears to be concern regarding the CSA's economic impacts. But even Bush Administration studies consistently project modest economic growth with cap and trade legislation. Others, notably economist and former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, predict minor impacts if we tackle global warming and economic disaster if we don't. If anything, economic considerations counsel in favor of taking action and do not justify continued delay on this urgent and defining issue of our generation.
 
Time is of the essence. Inaction only makes the job more difficult later. America has been a foot-dragger on global warming and needs to become a leader. Our Senators also need to step up and do what is best for the country and for Alaska.
 
Patrick Lavin
Attorney, National Wildlife Federation, Alaska Office