As the Senate begins consideration of climate change legislation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Vice President of Environment, Technology, and Regulatory Affairs William Kovacs pointed to the need to realistically tackle the issue by promoting the development and deployment of new technologies.

"The business community wants to be a leader in crafting a logical plan to address climate change," Kovacs said at a briefing today at the U.S. Chamber.   "This is why the Chamber believes a major focus of any climate change strategy must be the development and rapid deployment of new energy technologies; not burdening businesses and consumers with new taxes.  Congress talks about addressing climate change, however, it has failed to seriously fund the development of the 64 non-fossil fuel technologies identified as needed to address climate change in the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

"Unfortunately, the cap-and-tax bill introduced by Senators Lieberman, Warner, and Boxer, fails to recognize the importance of technology as a solution to curbing carbon emissions," he said. "If we are to truly move away from fossil fuels, we must be able to replace these fuels with low- or zero-carbon alternatives.  A great deal of the technology isn't commercially available yet and several of these technologies don't even exist."

The "Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008" (S. 3036) creates an overwhelming regulatory structure that will cost the average American household $1,000 to $6,700 annually, according to various economic studies.  According to one study, the bill would result in two to four million lost jobs.

"Instead of creating new jobs by promoting new technologies, this bill slashes jobs in a country that's already facing economic headwinds," Kovacs said.  "As gas prices vault to record highs, is now really the time for Congress to pass legislation that will only raise prices on hard working Americans?"