Domenici Statement on White House Global Climate Change Initiative

May 31, 2007
01:20 PM
 
          LAS VEGAS, NM – U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, today issued the following statement regarding President Bush’s announcement of a new global climate change initiative:
 
“It is good to see the President has proposed to take the lead on initiating global climate change negotiations. 
 
            “For some time now, I have been calling for a global approach to the climate change issue.  It is my belief that this problem cannot be solved by the U.S. itself.  We must engage China, India, and other developing nations to be active partners with us.  If we don’t do so, we could place our nation at an economic disadvantage and our efforts would likely be ineffective at reducing emissions.
 
            “Depending upon the details of the proposal, President Bush’s announcement of a new global strategy today could be the type of effort I have envisioned.  The President will ask China, India, the European Union, Russia, Japan, Mexico and other nations to join the United States in an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  The coalition proposed by the President represents over 80 percent of total global emissions.
 
            “While I support the collaborative nature of the effort envisioned by the President, the devil is always in the details.  I will await more information about the proposal before passing judgment.  In particular, the question of exactly how each nation would go about reducing emissions and enforce the agreement is a central concern of mine.
 
“I do support helping developing nations adopt their own energy efficient standards, and reducing tariffs and trade barriers to deploy environmentally friendly technology.  It makes sense to collaborate and share technology on a global basis, since this is truly a worldwide problem.
 
“During his remarks today, the President mentioned nuclear power as one of the best ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  I agree wholeheartedly, which is why I’m pleased to see so many new nuclear power plants on the drawing board in this country.  The recently announced U.S.-China agreement to collaborate on nuclear safety is an example of the right kind of global cooperation on this front.
 
            “Here in the United States, I believe that we should redouble our domestic efforts to develop technology, which includes boosting our loan guarantee program and providing financial incentives to encourage the deployment of low and no greenhouse gas emissions technology.”
 
            In March, Domenici wrote a letter to President Bush calling on the U.S. to engage China on global energy issues, with a specific focus on developing technology to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.  The Senator subsequently met with Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Zhou Wenzhong to discuss energy and climate issues.
 
 
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