An annual global-warming gas-reduction plan convenes presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama with newly independent Sen. Joe Lieberman. According to them, the plan would reduce annual global-warming gases by two-thirds by mid-century.
The capping on greenhouse emissions for power plants, industry and oil refineries are called to be mandatory by Sens. McCain, R-Ariz., Obama, D-Ill., and Lieberman, the Connecticut independent.
The plan would require the return of the heat-trapping gases release to 2004 levels, and that too by 2012 and to 1990 levels by 2020. Carbon dioxide, produced from the burning of fossil fuels, is the primary greenhouse gas. The emissions of the primary greenhouse gas – carbon dioxide — in the U.S. have increased an average of about 1 percent year since 1990.
Announced Friday, the bill intends to cut the heat-trapping emissions by 2 percent a year! Sure to kick-up a contentious debate on climate control in the new Democratic-run Congress, it would definitely draw strong opposition from the White House and industry.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke