Bingaman to introduce bill to fight global warming

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman will unveil a long-awaited proposal on Wednesday aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the United States through the establishment of a cap-and-trade system.

Bingaman’s office said today that the state’s Democratic senator won’t release details until the news conference, which will be held in Washington at 10 a.m. MST. He told me in January, during an interview at his Washington office, that the legislation would cap emissions and allow the trading of usage permits, which the senator called “the most significant action we could take to begin dealing with this issue.”

Even before it’s formally announced, Bingaman’s plan has drawn the ire of many on the right and left. The Competitive Enterprise Institute criticized a draft circulated in January as legislation that would “increase consumer energy costs, chill investment in new coal-fired plants and usher in a new era of anti-energy litigation.”

And the site Blue Climate criticized Bingaman’s proposal in January as one that “falls short” because it doesn’t do enough to combat global warming. Bingaman told me in January that he has supported more drastic measures in the past, but they were easily defeated, and he is trying to put together legislation that will reduce emissions and that actually has a chance of being approved by Congress and signed by President Bush.

The bill will earn Bingaman, the chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, some national press and a lot of controversy. He’s trying to find a middle ground that will secure enough GOP support for passage of the bill.