U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern gave notice to the United Nations that the country will aim for a 17 percent emissions cut in carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming by 2020, from 2005 levels.
The move, which confirmed the goal set by the White House late last year, was conditional on other countries also submitting their pollution-cutting targets to the accord, Stern said.
The House has done it's job (Waxman-Markey). Now it's time for the Senate to do theirs (Kerry-Boxer). Kerry is trying to negotiate a compromise with help from Lindsay Graham and Joe Lieberman.
But Kerry's task is complex because he has concluded that winning emissions limits will require several concessions to industry and Republicans. The plan he is crafting with Graham and Lieberman will likely contain an expansion of offshore drilling and large new subsidies for building nuclear power plants. ("Kerry's climate strategy: Get mad", by Ben Geman, The Hill, 28 January 2010)
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