G-8 promise pressures US Congress to deliver

2009-07-09 00:47:01 -

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama made the world the boldest promise yet on Wednesday in the battle to slow the heating of the planet. He committed the United States to reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent by mid-century.
The catch is that politics at home will determine whether the United States _ and Obama _ can deliver.
While the president has long said he wants to meet an 80 percent target by 2050, and a bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would achieve that goal, whether it becomes reality depends on the Senate, where the legislation's success is far from assured.
What the G-8 talks in Italy failed to settle _ chiefly getting developing countries to agree to halve worldwide emissions in the next 40 years _ is likely to further unsettle the situation in the U.S. Congress.
Republicans and moderate Democrats already had expressed worries that the United States was acting independently of other large emitters such as India and China, despite the White House and Democratic leaders arguing the United States needs to lead to bring them on board.
News that Wednesday's agreement did not include developing countries, despite a successful push by the White House and House Democratic leaders to pass the House bill before the G-8 summit, bolstered criticisms of congressional opponents.
«Without participation from China and India, anything we do here at home would impose burdensome costs on consumers in the form of higher electricity, gas and food prices, all for no climate gain,» said Sen. James Inhofe, the top Republican on the panel drafting the Senate's version of the bill.
«Unless supporters of cap-and-trade legislation can develop a plan to persuade China and India to make meaningful emissions reductions on par with the United States, no such bill will pass the U.S. Senate,» he said.
Frank Loy, chief U.S. climate negotiator from 1998-2000, said it is premature to rule out participation from developing countries, but added that without provisions to encourage their involvement, the legislation's chances will dim.
«It will be very difficult for the U.S. to persuade some members of Congress to adopt any kind of legislation if they can't see ... that there will be meaningful efforts by developing countries who are major emitters,» Loy said.
Obama administration officials, speaking at a news conference in Italy, played down the position of developing countries, saying more progress is expected after the Major Economies Forum meets on Thursday. They also said time still is left to negotiate before 192 nations sit down in Copenhagen, Denmark, to negotiate a new U.N. treaty to reduce greenhouse gases. That agreement will replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The United States never ratified that agreement.
«We're still a fair ways away from Copenhagen, and we'll be working with the developing countries between now and then to firm up commitments,» said Mike Froman, Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics.
Back at home, Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate said the House bill, which would impose the first nationwide limits on heat-trapping gases, enabled the Obama administration to commit to an 80 percent reduction. The legislation would put a price on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, forcing the transition to less-polluting energy sources by making it more expensive for industries burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels to do business.
«The legislation was game changing,» said Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, who sponsored the bill with Democrat Henry Waxman. «Today we are seeing the first results of that change.
Senate Democrats are hoping to have the bill out of committee by August, with a vote in the Senate before the Copenhagen meeting in December.
«Our target and our goal is to have passed something in the Senate,» said Sen. John Kerry, also a Democrat, who is a crucial player in drafting the Senate bill. He said the pledge made by Obama on Wednesday depends on it.