A new bi-partisan bill was introduced Tuesday to address climatechange issues using “American ingenuity in the marketplace todevelop new technology that can be exported and deployed around theworld.” Chief sponsor, Chairman Frank H. Murkowski of the SenateEnergy Committee, said the Energy and Climate Policy Act of 1999would chart a different course than the Kyoto Protocol. “Our billrepresents a long-term, technology-based, alternative to Kyoto.Even if the U.S. succeeded in limiting its own emissions, “we areunlikely to compel China to submit to mandated emissions limits.But they want to buy our technology, so let’s play our stronghand.”

The bill sponsored by Murkowski, and Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-NB,Robert C. Byrd, D-WV, and Larry Craig, R-ID, among others, would:create a new $2 billion research development and demonstrationprogram for public-private partnerships in new technology; improveexisting law to promote voluntary reductions in greenhouse gasemissions; create an Office of Climate Change in the EnergyDepartment. The proposal is just the beginning Murkowski said.Additional measures could install tax incentives to promote cleanair practices; promote voluntary agricultural and forest managementpractices that trap additional carbon dioxide in biomass and soils;and promote U.S. exports of clean technologies to nations such asChina and India.

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