By Virak Kchao, USCM Intern
July 25, 2005

The Senate held two hearings on climate change, one in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on July 21 and the other in the Commerce, Science and Transportation Global Climate Change and Impacts Subcommittee July 20.

In the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, a panel of scientists testified on various aspects of climate change; all agreeing that it was a serious cause for concern. Senators such as Chairman Pete Domenici (NM) and Ranking Member Senator Jeff Bingaman (NM) said they are convinced that climate change is very real and can have catastrophic effects on the world. Senator Larry Craig (ID) was still slightly skeptical and questioned the uncertainty of global warming.

The question that many of the Senators at the hearing posed: What do we do now? The panel recommended various solutions such as using biomass fuels, solar energy, or efforts to improve energy efficiency. Senator Lamar Alexander (TN) believed that those solutions were insufficient to solve global warming which scientists showed to be a huge problem with the next generation. Domenici, along with Craig, believed that the use of nuclear energy was the only alternative to curb greenhouse gases in the short-term.

Another panelist Ralph Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences, told Senators that many other nations were looking to the U.S. as a leader in the solution to climate change. Cicerone stated that the U.S. is the greatest contributor of greenhouse gases, and once the U.S. took a leading role, many other nations would follow. John Houghton of the Scientific Assessment Working Group said that the best way for innovative technologies to combat climate change was the open market. Houghton described that it would allow private and public sectors to compete with one another to find the best and most cost-effective technologies. Agreed upon by both Senators and panelists, this was a global effort and the solution would not be easy, since it dealt with scientific, economic, and political collaboration.

In the July 20 hearing, Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee Chairman David Vitter (LA) expressed how the U.S. was the greatest spender in climate change research and technology with the U.S. spending $20 billion and requesting $5 billion more. Senator Frank Lautenberg (NJ) showed that this needed long-term planning and investment by U.S. government. James Mahoney, U.S Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, said that there are no new mechanisms going on with all the same old plans to fight climate change.

At the G8 summit, all the nations agreed that global warming was a huge danger but did not agree on how to solve the problem. Vitter and Lautenberg also believed that market competition was the best way for innovative technologies to be used on the market. Vitter stated that the climate models and data needed to be better validated. There will be future meetings on global warming by nations held in London and Montreal.

By the end of both hearings it appeared that the Senators are realizing the impending problem posed by global warming and that action was needed to solve this growing problem.

Over 45 mayors participated in a Global Warming Meeting in Utah July 10-12. Please see related story.