Global warming is a major challenge confronting this country. Our elected leaders have a responsibility to take on the corporations that have denied the truth about global climate change and find effective ways of reducing carbon emissions. That’s why if I were in the Senate, I would support S.3698: the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-VT), proposes concrete steps to reduce the pollution that is threatening our planet. It calls for carbon emissions to be down to 1990 levels by 2020, and requires steady reductions to get emissions down to 80% below their 1990 levels by 2050. Power plants, cars, and carbon-intensive businesses would all be subject to the new requirements.

The bill promotes the use of innovative new technologies and would require the U.S. to derive 20% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. It would also put in place energy-efficiency standards similar to those in California and other states that have taken the lead in reducing pollution. And if global temperatures or the amount of carbon in the atmosphere rise precipitously, the EPA would be authorized to require further emission reductions.

By contrast, the incumbent is a co-sponsor (along with John McCain and Joe Lieberman) of the much weaker Climate Stewardship Act. This bill is far less sweeping in its pollution reductions. Rather than mandating ambitious cuts in pollution levels, as the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act does, the Climate Stewardship Act proposes to reduce carbon emissions through a market-based allowance trading scheme. Basically, companies would be allotted a certain number of “tradeable emissions allowances”, each worth one metric ton of greenhouse gases. Companies would only be allowed to produce as much pollution as they have allowances for and could buy and sell allowances from one another.

There are a number of problems with this approach. First, the initial allocation of allowances is done by the head of the EPA. In an administration known for cronyism and whose cabinet is entirely composed of corporate executives and lobbyists, the potential for corruption is painfully obvious. More importantly, though, emissions-trading is not a viable long-term solution, since it doesn’t require corporations to find new and sustainable ways to lower the pollution they produce. Those companies that don’t want to adapt would simply have to buy more allowances.

I am fully committed to addressing the problem of global climate change. The longer we ignore the problem of global warming, the more dangerous it becomes. Politicians need to stop trying to appease corporations and start addressing this issue with serious legislation. As a Senator, I will support bills like the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act that take concrete steps to reduce our country’s carbon emissions. Only by taking immediate and resolute action on this issue will we avoid further harm to our environment and more catastrophic disasters like Hurricane Katrina.