Though in many respects similar to provisions in the House-approved American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) bill and the prior Boxer-Kerry bill in the Senate, the adaptation program proposed in the newly released Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act substantially decreases funding for federal and state adaptation programs and eliminates provisions establishing a public health adaptation program.
Like its predecessors, Kerry-Lieberman’s adaptation program, included in large part in Title IV, §§6001-6011, incorporates a number of provision focused on managing the effects of climate change on natural resources in the United States:
Though these adaptation provisions may be an improvement over the status quo, they nonetheless retain many of the same key weaknesses as those in ACES and Boxer-Kerry that I and others have detailed here and here. In addition, Kerry-Lieberman eliminates a number of significant provisions adopted in ACES. These include:
Kerry-Lieberman also eliminates detailed language originally included in the Kerry-Boxer bill that authorize several new domestic programs for addressing specific climate change threats: (1) a research program to assist utilities in adapting to the effects of climate change on drinking water; (2) a water system partnership program to provide funds to States for water system adaptation projects; (3) a program to provide funds to States for flood control, protection, prevention and response projects; (4) a program to minimize increased risks from wildfires; and (5) funding for coastal and Great Lakes states to prepare for the effects of climate change on coastal resources.
Kerry-Lieberman does, however, appear to provide NOAA discretion to create water system, flood control, wildfire and coastal area programs (though it is unclear to me why NOAA would be the appropriate entity to create such programs).
Perhaps most worrying about the Kerry-Lieberman bill, however, is the proposed reduction in funds for domestic natural resource adaptation activities. Rather than increasing the amount of funding set aside for adaptation efforts, as many have been calling for, Kerry-Lieberman proposes less funding. Adaptation efforts would not even begin to receive funding until 2019, and even then domestic adaptation activities combined would only be allocated 0.75% of allowances (1.5% divided equally with international adaptation efforts). Adaptation funding would slowly increase as a percentage until 2030, when domestic adaptation funding would peak at 3% of total allowances. In contrast, ACES would begin domestic adaptation funding in 2012 at 1% and steadily increase such allocations to 4% by 2027. As a result, even the modest adaptation programs authorized by the bill very well may fail to provide sufficient support to state and federal agencies and private parties seeking to prepare and manage the approaching effects of climate change in the United States and worldwide.
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Alejandro Camacho | May 14, 2010
Though in many respects similar to provisions in the House-approved American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) bill and the prior Boxer-Kerry bill in the Senate, the adaptation program proposed in the newly released Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act substantially decreases funding for federal and state adaptation programs and eliminates provisions establishing a public health adaptation […]
Yee Huang | May 12, 2010
Today marks the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s Executive Order on Chesapeake Bay Restoration and Protection, which commits federal agencies to a new leadership role in Bay restoration. This morning the Federal Leadership Committee, headed by EPA and comprised of many of the major federal agencies, released its final Strategy for Restoration and Protection of […]
Victor Flatt | May 12, 2010
While Kerry and Lieberman (and before two weeks ago, Graham) have tried to pitch the proposed new Senate climate and energy draft legislation as a “game-changer” the truth is that, aside from the stronger preemption language limiting the states, its effect is not terribly different from what has come before. Sure, there are sweeteners for the […]
Victor Flatt | May 12, 2010
The Kerry-Lieberman bill’s provisions on offsets are largely similar to those in the Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Boxer bill, but include a number of changes that make more specific policy choices in the use of offsets. First, the proposal enumerates a specific lengthy list of eligible offset categories (whereas Waxman-Markey didn’t list specific categories, instead giving instruction […]
Alexandra Klass | May 11, 2010
A federal task force of the EPA and a host of federal agencies are currently working on a proposal, due to President Obama by June, on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) policy; they’re now holding a series of public meetings (for background on CCS generally, see the CPR Perspective I wrote examining some of the arguments […]
Holly Doremus | May 10, 2010
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. As oil drifts on and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, forcing the closure of wildlife refuges and more fishing grounds, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has called a temporarily halt to new offshore drilling while his staff prepare a report on the disaster and even Republicans in Congress are calling for […]
Matthew Freeman | May 9, 2010
CPR Member Scholar Victor Flatt has an op-ed piece in this morning’s Houston Chronicle, in which he argues that the week of April 20 will likely be recalled as “one of the most pivotal and important weeks in the history of energy in this country,” citing the confluence of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon […]
Rena Steinzor | May 7, 2010
Our loyal opposition at the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness has engaged in some very creative reading of legal opinions in order to breathe new life into a discredited anti-regulatory tool of the George W. Bush era: the Information Quality Act. This pesky little statute instructs the Office of Management and Budget to “provide policy and procedural […]
Yee Huang | May 7, 2010
Today the Center for Progressive Reform releases a briefing paper on Chesapeake Bay policy in anticipation of the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s Executive Order on Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration. The Choose Clean Water Coalition also today sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson stressing that EPA’s strategy for the Bay must have […]