Word: congressed
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...instead of reducing them. In the second paper, another team of researchers led by Tim Searchinger of Princeton University uncovered a potentially damaging flaw in the way carbon emissions from bioenergy are calculated under the Kyoto Protocol and in the carbon cap-and-trade bill currently being debated in Congress. If that error in calculation goes unfixed, a future increase in biofuel use could end up backfiring and derailing efforts to control global warming, according to the paper. "Biofuels can be an important part of the portfolio of climate-change activities," says Steve Hamburg, chief scientist for the Environmental Defense...
...from deforestation or other changes in the way we use land are not evaluated at all. The result is a huge, if accidental error in the existing global carbon accounting system - and one that now stands to be repeated in the cap-and-trade bill up for debate in Congress. "It's a very, very large loophole," says Searchinger, who had done pioneering work on problems of biofuels. "We're just effectively ignoring what happens on land." (See TIME's special report on the environment...
...countries that get their biofuels from sources that actually reduce greenhouse gases should get credit for those cuts. But politics will be another matter - the biofuel industry already has a lot of weight, especially in the U.S., where environmentalists need the votes of rural and Midwestern representatives in Congress if they are to have any hope of passing a cap-and-trade bill. Challenging the biofuel loophole could effectively scuttle cap-and-trade...
...bill is passed - but by that time the financial interests in favor of biofuels would be even stronger, and would surely resist changes. "If this isn't fixed, you could give companies a very powerful financial incentive to go clear land," says Searchinger, who has briefed members of Congress on his research. "As it stands, forests will be worth more dead than alive." Environmental groups will need to rethink their approach to cap-and-trade - and biofuels as well. It's the very definition of an inconvenient truth...
...wonderful member of Congress -- I believe this is your district, is that correct, Mike? Mike Capuano. Please give Mike a big round of applause. (Applause...