Duke University’s Nicholas Institute Poised To Provide Expertise To Senators Lieberman And Warner To Help Craft Bipartisan Climate Bill
Duke economists, law experts are designing solutions to concerns over costs of legislation and its impact on international competitiveness.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Contacts: Tim Profeta, (703) 346-4998 or tim.profeta@duke.edu or Nicole St. Clair Knobloch, (202) 797-6501 or nicole.stclair@duke.edu.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DURHAM, N.C. – The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University lauded the announcement of Senator Joseph Lieberman’s (I-Conn.) and Senator John Warner’s (R-Va.) declaration of their intent to draft a bipartisan cap-and-trade bill to curb greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.
Lieberman and Warner are senior members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and they announced today their intention to begin drafting a bill before the congressional August recess.
The new bill, which Lieberman and Warner hope to deliver to committee chairwoman Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) this summer, will propose an economywide cap and trade program that provides maximum flexibility to the marketplace to meet emission reduction requirements.
“This is an exciting moment. With Senator Lieberman and Warner’s leadership, the Senate will now focus on how to achieve the pollution reductions needed while satisfying valid concerns about costs and competitiveness,” said Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute.
To assist all senators and their staffs in crafting the proposed bill, the Nicholas Institute has engaged Duke economists and trade law experts to address concerns such as spurring federal investment in new technologies, allocating emission allowances, containing the costs of the legislation, and leveling the playing field between U.S. companies and international competitors not operating under pollution limits.
“Our institute and the broader Duke community have been designing solutions to these concerns and we look forward to assisting the senators any way we can,” Profeta said.
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