Senate Should Drop Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Registry

Statement of Myron Ebell<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />

Director of Global Warming Policy, Competitive Enterprise Institute

 

Washington, D.C., April 16, 2002 — As the Senate resumes debate this week on Senator Daschle's anti-energy, anti-consumer bill S. 517, strong efforts should be made to improve its seriously flawed global warming provisions.  In particular, the provision in Title XI for a mandatory registry of greenhouse gas reductions must be removed or replaced.

 

President Bush opposes regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions and for that reason opposes a mandatory registry.  Creating a mandatory registry would serve no purpose, but would place pointless and burdensome reporting requirements on at least ten thousand businesses.  The additional costs of measuring, recording, and reporting these emissions would be passed on to consumers through higher prices for energy, manufactured goods, and services.

 

The mandatory registry would also create regulatory uncertainty by raising the possibility that carbon dioxide emissions could be regulated in the future.  The resulting confusion could cause many major capital investments in the energy sector to be withdrawn and thereby could set back the necessary re-building of America's energy infrastructure.

Senator Daschle's bill is so bad that the best thing the Senate could do is to kill it.  Failing that, senators should try to remove or improve some of the worst provisions that will constrict energy supplies and raise energy prices.  First and most importantly, they should remove or replace the mandatory registry of greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy Experts Available for Interviews

Myron EbellDirector of Global Warming Policy[email protected] Recently featured on: The News Hour with JimLehrer (PBS), Street Sweep (CNNfn), & MorningEdition (NPR). Marlo LewisSenior Fellow[email protected] Recently featured in: Alan Keyes is Making Sense and the Washington Post. Paul GeorgiaEnvironmental Policy Analyst[email protected] Recently featured on: Talk of the Nation (NPR),BBC News, & Voice of America.

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, visit our website at www.cei.org or email the communications department at [email protected].