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Business mandates held off to side in global-warming debate

Posted July 10, 2007 11:00 pm

Mike Ramsey

Members of a state task force on global warming are in the late stages of drafting a report to Gov. Rod Blagojevich but so far have avoided a final vote on especially controversial mandates on industry.

The Climate Change Advisory Group met this week and advanced 19 ideas but deferred consideration of five additional recommendations for another month, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director Doug Scott, who chairs the panel, said Wednesday.

The deferred proposals include imposing California-style emissions caps on automobile manufacturers and a state-level "cap-and-trade" emissions program that would impose new restrictions on coal-burning power plants.

"It's controversial in that it's complicated (and) it involves industries having to do something they haven't been doing before," Scott said of the latter restriction. "They've been doing it for other pollutants, most of them, for a long time."

Blagojevich created the advisory panel of environmental advocates and labor and industry representatives last year. In February, he urged members to suggest a plan that would dramatically decrease the state's production of greenhouse gases - to 1990 levels by 2020 and 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Max Muller of Environment Illinois, who attended the latest meeting, said the governor's goals are unlikely to be reached without the emissions caps, based on the "modeling" done by consultants. But another panelist, Howard Learner of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, said the goals can be met by finding "the right mix of policies." He said Tuesday's meeting of the advisory group featured a "robust discussion" among members.

Among the ideas they endorsed this week were a recommendation to develop additional mass transit and a requirement that power companies get 25 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2025, according to a document posted at the advisory group's Web site (www.ilclimatechange.org).

Scott said the panel's final report would go to the governor soon after the next meeting, which a spokeswoman said is slated for mid-August. Scott said some measures would require approval from the General Assembly, whose leaders have been feuding with Blagojevich over a budget this summer. Scott downplayed the possibility that there would be lingering bad feelings by the time lawmakers get the environmental proposals.

"I'm a pretty optimistic guy by nature; I came out of the legislature," he said. "I really don't think that any of these will get harmed by what's going on right now in terms of the budget."

The theory of global warming - that releases of carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere combine to raise temperatures and melt polar ice caps - is now widely accepted by scientists.

Illinois, the fifth-largest state, emitted 231 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2002, making it the world's 23rd-largest producer, ahead of Venezuela and Greece, Environment Illinois has said. Driving those emissions were electricity generation and the transportation sector, the organization said.

Mike Ramsey can be reached at (312) 857-2323 or ghns-ramsey@sbcglobal.net.

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