The Chamber's Bill Kovacs calls for an international climate change treaty during testimony before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on April 24.

 
A House bill aimed at fighting global warming would impose a multitrillion dollar tax on businesses and increase energy prices without reducing the overall amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, according to a U.S. Chamber official.

"While the Chamber supports lowering greenhouse gas concentrations, this current framework will be the knockout blow to an American workforce that is already staggering," said Bill Kovacs, Chamber vice president of Environment, Technology and Regulatory Affairs. Kovacs testified on the "discussion draft" of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) before a House Committee on Energy and Commerce subcommittee on April 24.

Among other things, the ACES bill would do little to reduce the overall amount of C2O in the atmosphere because few other countries are willing to cut their emissions, Kovacs told the panel It would limit fossil fuel energy without providing any mechanism to ensure that substitute green energy would be available to meet the nation's energy needs and  would expand, the universe of potential plaintiffs who can sue for allegedly being "harmed" by climate change.

The Chamber believes that there is a better first step than ACES: focus  efforts on an international treaty that sets real, enforceable targets for all nations while allowing each nation the flexibility to meet these targets through whichever policy device it chooses. "After ratification of a new international agreement, Congress should pass legislation that implements the treaty in a manner that it believes best addresses the goals of the treaty, which hopefully is an effective mechanism for reducing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," Kovacs said.

In the meantime, the Chamber called on the Obama Administration to

• Implement a single, national fuel economy program, such as the existing Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, rather than allow states to set their own standards
• Provide robust investment in research, development, and deployment of clean energy and energy efficiency technologies
• Continue to implement the fuels and efficiency laws already on the books, such as the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) and Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA).
   

Kovacs' complete testimony is available here.