President Clinton is expected to sign in a week or two the Kyotoagreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but his action willbe seen as “more of a gesture of goodwill” to the conferencecurrently underway in Argentina further addressing the issue,according to Capitol Hill and gas industry sources. He has nointention of submitting the accord for ratification to the Senate,which is sharply opposed to it.

In a strongly worded letter, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WVA),yesterday urged the president not to sign the agreement, saying itwould be “contrary to the plain language” of a resolutionunanimously passed by the Senate a year ago vowing not to approvethe accord unless there were mandated commitments from developingcountries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

“Further, I am unconvinced that signing the Kyoto Protocol wouldimprove your negotiating position vis-…-vis developing countries,”said Byrd, a co-sponsor of the Senate resolution. Signing thedocument now would be an “empty gesture” since it would be metwith considerable opposition in Congress, he warned.

In addition, Clinton’s signature would confirm some senators’suspicions that the administration is attempting to implement theKyoto agreement through a “regulatory back door,” and couldjeopardize funding for domestic voluntary programs aimed atreducing greenhouse gas emissions, he said. “I believe that globalwarming is a serious global problem that needs and deserves to beaddress in a serious, evenhanded and global manner. But I do notagree that the United States should consider signing onto aone-sided Protocol…”

The Senate views the Kyoto accord as a “fundamentally flaweddocument” that will never be ratified into law until the developingcountries agree to limit their greenhouse gas emissions in the samefashion as the larger industrialized countries. But that’s notlikely to happen – at least not anytime soon, said Derek Jumper,press aide to the Senate Environmental and Natural ResourcesCommittee.

“China’s already told us for lack of a better word to stick itin our ear,” he noted. “And without the support of China and otherdeveloping countries, such as India, Mexico and Indonesia, there’sno way the Senate would ratify” the agreement.

At the talks underway in Buenos Aries, Argentina, where about110-120 countries are participating, “the U.S. delegation istrying…right now to strengthen the agreement in those areas thatare important to members of the Senate,” said Martin Edwards,director of legislative affairs for the Interstate Natural GasAssociation of America (INGAA). This has been the crux of the U.S.”negotiating position” over the past year, but the developingcountries have remained steadfastly opposed to mandatory reductionsin the emissions, which include carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogenoxide (NOx) and methane.

The Buenos Aries conference is a “continuation” of thenegotiations that were held in Kyoto, Japan, at the end of lastyear. “I think it’s going to be an ongoing thing for the next fewyears. It’s kind of an evolutionary thing,” Edwards said. He notedthat INGAA has an environmental representative at the talks, as doseveral individual oil and gas companies – Enron, BP, El PasoEnergy and Shell.

This is a “huge issue” for natural gas, Edwards said. “I’m kindof amazed that [gas] people don’t pay as much attention to it asthey should…” In the United States alone, it could lead to agreater number of power utilities switching to gas-firedgeneration and backing away from coal as the fuel of choice, hebelieves.

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