The purpose of the hearing is to explore the fiscal and distributional impacts of limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
Witnesses
- Dr. Peter Orszag, Director, Congressional Budget Office
- Robert Greenstein, Executive Director, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- David D. Doniger, Policy Director, Natural Resources Defense Council
- Anne E. Smith, Ph.D., Vice President, CRA International
Witnesses testified that global climate change will have serious effects— Witnesses testified that the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, have gradually increased over the past century and are contributing to the warming of Earth’s climate.
In light of the scientific evidence about the potential damages this could cause, momentum is growing to impose mandatory limits to stabilize and eventually reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases.
exceeding costs, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)— While it is difficult to assign a quantitative value to the benefits of climate change mitigation, CBO testified that “most analyses suggest that a carefully designed program to begin lowering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would produce greater benefits than costs.” This hearing examined ways to minimize the cost of climate change policy, apart from the benefits that would be derived from pursuing the policy in the first place.
01/11/2007 at 11:30AM