Budget Riders Undermine Efforts To Reduce Impacts Of Climate Change

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today called on Congress to remove anti-environmental climate change riders from budget bills. EDF blasted the riders as a misguided ploy that would inhibit voluntary actions to reduce greenhouse gases, undermine international negotiations on the Kyoto climate treaty and diminish ongoing research into the effects of global climate change.

“This is a backdoor method of making law on climate change,” said EDF legislative director Elizabeth Thompson. “After a summer of intense heat it’s unconscionable to reign in important, ongoing activities to cut CO₂ emissions.”

“Every US Senator has voted in favor of demanding that greenhouse gas emissions reductions be low-cost and involve all major emitting countries,” said Annie Petsonk, EDF international counsel. “With these riders, naysayers in the House of Representatives are now trying to block US negotiators from delivering the treaty goals of the US Senate.”

In a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee members, EDF said the riders attached by Rep. Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI) would have damaging effects on existing work to protect the public from the impacts of climate change and would:

· Prohibit the Administration from engaging in international negotiations on climate change. These negotiations are critical to finding a cost-effective international solution to this truly global problem, a solution that also must include key developing nations. EDF believes that these riders are unconstitutional, as well as bad for the environment.

· Block voluntary programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including Energy Star and Green Lights, both of which enjoy wide support in both the environmental community and U.S. industry, precisely at a time when these programs are beginning to show significant results in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

· Skew scientific forums and the scientific process, in part by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide “balanced” viewpoints on climate change in panels or presentations, no matter how unscientific the position.

“The intense heat experienced by much of the US this summer should serve as a wake-up call to the dangers of global warming. We urge Congress to prevent these riders from ever becoming law,” said Thompson.