Battle lines drawn over greenhouse gas emissions.(United States Congressional debate )

ASHINGTON, DC--Even as the complaint is heard that environmental regulations have been unjustifiably relaxed by the Bush Administration in recent months, the stage has been set for a Congressional debate about another potentially sensitive topic--regulating greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. utilities and industrial plants.

On January 8 Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) announced legislation that would cut greenhouse gas emissions. The McCain-Lieberman bill would set a nationwide cap on emissions from the electricity, industrial, commercial, and transportation sectors. Starting in 2010, emissions would be set at 2000 levels, according to the bill. In 2016, the cap would be reduced to 1990 levels (the target level in the Rio climate treaty signed by President George H.W. Bush and ratified by the Senate in 1992). The proposal is less stringent than the terms of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

In addition, the bill provides for an emissions trading system under which non-compliant companies could purchase credits from those companies whose compliance exceeds minimum standards.

Administration Opposition Expected

It's expected that the bill will be opposed by the current Bush administration, which rejected the Kyoto Treaty, arguing that the costs of compliance would be too high. The White House further contends that more study is needed to determine if global warming is a real threat.

The legislation follows news that 2002 was the second warmest year recorded, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) points out, citing the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), an agency of the United Nations.

The global mean surface temperature for 2002 is expected to be approximately 050 [degrees]C above the 1961-90 annual bean value, according WMO. "While the trend toward warmer globally averaged surface temperatures has been uneven over the course of the last century, the trend for the period since 1976 is roughly three times that for the past 100 years as a whole," the group states.