Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 3036)

As an active member of TU, you have certainly already given generously of your time and money. This note is not about money, but TU is asking you to take the time to become acquainted with a landmark bill, The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, S. 3036 (formerly S.2191). This bill is moving toward the floor of the United States Senate for a very important debate on the week of June 2nd and we are writing you to help us raise our voices in support of the bill.

The science is now clear on showing us that climate change is occurring because of human activity. Because of firsthand experience with its effects and the widespread media attention given this problem, threats posed by climate change are recognized by Trout Unlimited members and the American public. Responding to these concerns, the National Leadership Council (NLC), TU’s volunteer leadership board, voted to include climate change on TU’s National Conservation Agenda in 2004.

The Bad News about climate change.  TU supports the Lieberman-Warner Act because it is fully consistent with TU’s mission to restore, protect and conserve America’s coldwater resources. We are deeply concerned about climate change because its adverse effects hit trout and salmon resources especially hard.  A TU report we released in December, “Healing Troubled Waters” , and another report we helped to author , “Season’s End”, summarize various recent studies that show that trout and salmon populations are likely to decline by 50% or more in those regions that will be affected most by global warming.  According to new studies by the U.S. Forest Service, some trout species, like the bull trout, found in high-mountain areas of the northern Rockies, could see as much as a 90% population loss. Many trout species already listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act will become increasingly vulnerable to extinction.  In addition, it has been shown that 20 to 40% of the Pacific Northwest’s salmon populations may disappear as a result of climate change.

The Good News about what we can do to fight the adverse effects. Though the statistics paint a somewhat grim future scenario for coldwater fish, the reports provide a framework for what can be done to help rivers and fish build resistance and resilience to the effects of climate change. Trout Unlimited is working with partners at the federal, state and local levels to identify and protect high quality habitats and sources of cold, clean water, to identify barriers to fish movement within streams and work to remove these barriers, and to restore entire watersheds by working with landowners and agencies to improve habitat diversity in streams and floodplains.

The Lieberman-Warner bill not only helps to get at the root of the problem, but also helps with fish and wildlife adaptation until the root problem is fixed.

Briefly, the Lieberman-Warner Act will, among other provisions,

• address the root cause of climate change –greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution—by establishing emission allowances for 2012-2020, with a declining cap on GHG to reduce GHG emissions over a 57 year period;
• provide for selling, exchanging, transferring, submitting, retiring, or borrowing emission allowances;
• establish a domestic offset program to sequester GHS in agriculture and forests; and
• establish in the Treasury, and provide allocations for, various funds which support the act, including an Adaptation Fund which would greatly benefit fish and wildlife interests

GHG emissions reduction
Central to the Lieberman-Warner Act is the reduction of GHG emissions. Effective efforts to address global warming must begin with means to limit the ongoing release of GHG into the atmosphere. The bill would include over 85% of GHG emissions and set a declining cap on those emissions between 2012 and 2050. The bill requires reductions below 2005 levels from covered sources of 4% by 2012, 19% by 2020, and 71% by 2050. Overall, by 2012, there would be 5-13% reduction in U. S. emissions, 18-25% by 2020, and 62-66% by 2050. The bill also authorizes reviews by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to evaluate the progress on a scientific basis, and provides for the NAS to make recommendations concerning adjustments in long-term targets to Congress.

Fish and Wildlife funding 
TU members are obviously concerned about the ongoing well-being of the fish we pursue. Fish and wildlife are threatened now. The critical function of protecting and conserving our natural resources is addressed in the Lieberman-Warner Act by the establishment of a program to provide support for these activities. Eighteen percent of the proceeds from set-aside emission credits and funds raised by the auctioning of allowances will be devoted toward adaptation projects. It has been estimated that these funds will total approximately $175 billion during the first nineteen years of the cap and trade program alone. This amount far exceeds any amount presently available for organizations such as Trout Unlimited and would certainly open the door for critical conservation, restoration, and protection projects.

Costs 
Addressing global warming will certainly have costs, but so does doing nothing. Although there has been concern about the costs of bills like Liberman-Warner, it has been stated that the most costly U. S. climate policy is not having one.  Under a state of the art run model by the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S gross domestic product was predicted to grow 81% between 2010 and 2030. The same model, with Liberman-Warner emissions limits on GHG included, showed an almost identical 80% increase. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office’s cost estimate for the bill projected increased revenues of $1.21 trillion and direct spending of $1.13 trillion between 2009 and 2018.

Trout Unlimited seeks your support on the floor of the Senate for the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.  Passage of this bill will have a profound positive impact on our ability to protect and restore our streams and rivers and avoid the perils of unanswered and unchecked global warming.

Thank you for helping TU in the important work of supporting the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.

Bob Rosenthal,
rcrosenthal@cox.net

Steve Moyer,
smoyer@tu.org