Sen. Ben Cardin and Maryland environmentalists vowed to continue the fight for an aggressive global warming bill ? even as the Senate effectively killed the measure for this year.
“This legislation will come back. I do believe this bill will be passed in 2009,” said Cardin, D-Md., standing on the beach at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters in Annapolis.
More than 1,200 environmentalists signed Cardin?s petition showing support for the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which requires substantial reductions in greenhouse gases and provides funding for the Chesapeake Bay.
“We have got to act on global climate change,” said Cardin, who called the legislation “one of the most important bills I will ever work on.”
Senate supporters fell short of the 60 votes needed to move forward with the legislation, defeating the measure for this year.
However, 48 senators voted for the bill, and presidential hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have voiced their support, making the bill?s chances next year look promising, Cardin said.
The bill establishes a cap on certain sources of greenhouse gas emissions that declines gradually to 19 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 71 percent below those levels by 2050.
The measure also would create a market where emission permits could be traded, giving economic incentives to reduce pollution, Cardin said.
Opponents said the measure would increase energy prices.
The Chesapeake Bay would benefit from about $52 million in funding for conservation and restoration efforts, Cardin said.
Rising temperatures from global warming have led to more storms, which means more pollution and warmer water, which means less habitat and wildlife, said Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Will Baker.
“All of these issues are interrelated,” he said.
Some activists said the legislation doesn?t go far enough to keep the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions below 500 parts per million.
The latest science contends the safe level of concentration is 350 parts per million, said May Boeve, a co-coordinator for San Francisco-based 350, an organization advocating that the legislation require that level.
“It?s a great first step, but we do think the climate science is dire, and we need to take it seriously,” Boeve said.
