Powerful policy group toughens U.S. emissions plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An influential U.S. panel of energy experts has toughened its recommendations on global warming emissions, aiming for a 15 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2030, a spokesman for the group said on Friday.

The National Commission on Energy Policy -- a nonpartisan organization that includes representatives from industry, government, labor, environmental activism and academia -- revised a plan first issued in 2004 that was used as the model for some climate change proposals in Congress.

"The truth is that the urgency has increased, not just on climate change but on oil security," said panel communications director Paul Bledsoe, explaining the need for updating.

The panel's report is taken seriously by the Senate Energy Committee, which hopes to complete a bill on climate change next month, committee spokesman Bill Wicker said.

The new recommendations, released on Thursday, call for emissions of greenhouse gases to be reduced in the first year of the plan's implementation, presumably 2012, Bledsoe said.

The year 2012 is seen as the earliest that the system can be put into place.

The plan is centered on mandatory limits of carbon emissions and a system of emissions permits that could be traded.

One controversial part of the plan is a limit on how high the price for emissions permits could go. This so-called safety valve would limit the price per ton of greenhouse gas emissions to $10 at first, up from $7 in the earlier proposal, Bledsoe said.

This limit would rise over time to $20 per ton after 10 years, he said.

ENVIRONMENTALIST CRITICISM

Environmentalists called the recommendations an improvement but took issue with the safety valve provision.

Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said limiting the price of emissions credits to bargain-basement levels under the safety valve plan would eliminate incentive for U.S. companies to invest in cleaner technologies.

It would make more economic sense for them to simply buy artificially cheap emissions credits, he said.

"Even the new proposal continues to include a limit on the value of carbon permits, making domestic companies' investments in reducing carbon emissions untradable and worthless in international carbon markets," Clapp said in a statement.

The trust and other green groups favor letting the market set the value of emissions credits.

Anthony Kreindler of Environmental Defense said by e-mail: "It's encouraging that (the commission) recognizes the need for a real cap on emissions, but the science is unforgiving -- it says we need to cut carbon by about 80 percent by mid-century if we want to avoid the worst effects of climate change."

The commission also urged improved fuel efficiency standards for vehicles and proposed that the United States adopt a federal renewable energy portfolio whereby at least 15 percent of electricity coming from renewable sources by 2020.

If followed over time, the reduction in the human-caused emissions that spur global warming would reach 15 percent by 2030, Bledsoe said.

That is a change from the previous plan, which called for slowing of emissions growth at first and reducing emissions only after 10 years.

The new plan's reductions of greenhouse gas emissions would be measured in absolute terms, rather than on the basis of emissions intensity -- the amount of emissions per unit of growth in the U.S. gross domestic product -- favored by the Bush administration.

The White House has called for voluntary cuts in emissions intensity of 18 percent by 2012, which does not necessarily mean overall emissions will drop.