C-Lock A Cap & Trade Play:C-Lock Represents A Play On Cap & Trade:
Legislators seek a voice in policies to curb greenhouse gases: Lawmakers seeking a voice in policies to curb greenhouse gases
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Mar 3 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Minnesota Legislature Environment Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
As Gov. Tim Pawlenty works on a regional system for trading pollution credits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Minnesota Legislature is considering ways to influence the outcome.
But the effort is off to a rocky start and will face a test Tuesday when a key energy committee takes up the measure.
The bill's chief Senate sponsor, Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, said she's committed to making it palatable to a broad group of interests. But judging from the lineup of opponents, from Pawlenty to businesses and utilities, she has her work cut out.
The bill emerged from an environment policy committee last week, but only after Anderson volunteered to send it along without a recommendation. A companion measure in the House, sponsored by Rep. Kate Knuth, DFL-New Brighton, had its first hearing a week ago, but no vote was taken.
Anderson and Knuth contend the bill simply gives the Legislature a voice in a system that Pawlenty, who played a leadership role in finalizing the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Accord in November, is developing with five other states and the province of Manitoba.
That regional cap and trade program is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide to blunt the effects of global warming. States would set an overall limit on emissions and then issue permits that polluting industries could buy and sell among themselves. Because of the costs associated with those permits, there's an incentive for
industries, utilities and other polluters to cut emissions.
A similar approach was used to help reduce acid rain problems more than a decade ago.
An element of the Green Solutions Act of 2008, the Anderson-Knuth proposal also is part of a larger effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota by 15 percent by 2015, 30 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050. If nothing is done, those emissions are projected to increase by more than 25 percent by 2025.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas, have been building in the atmosphere for decades. Unless the direction is reversed, greenhouse gases are projected to lead to a warmer planet.
At a Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee hearing Wednesday, opponents cited plenty of reasons for opposing the measure.
Those reasons include a requirement that permits be auctioned off instead of allocated at no cost, a provision critics say could cost billions of dollars for permits and could push consumer prices higher. Some also don't like restrictions imposed on the state as it works with the other states and Manitoba.
"Our concern with the bill before us is that, as we go into negotiations, it constrains us from negotiating with them to get the best results," said Edward Garvey, deputy commerce commissioner and director of the Office of Energy Security.
Opponents also favor a federal system over a more localized one, which they say would further damage the state's economy.
The same criticisms should emerge again in Tuesday's Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications Committee hearing.
Saying some type of cap and trade system is imminent, Anderson and Knuth insisted the Legislature should have a position on how one involving the state is structured.
"It's moving forward," Anderson said. "The only question is, do we want to be part of the discussions?"