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U.S. Congress Set to Debate Kyoto AgreementPosted 2/14/1998By Robert L. Redding, Jr.
Along with top Clinton administration officials, several key members of Congress participated in the recent Kyoto, Japan, global warming conference. Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat served as the lead negotiator for the United States during the United Nations-sponsored conference. Eizenstat, a native Georgian, served in the Carter administration as domestic policy advisor and most recently as ambassador to the European Community and as a senior official at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Eizenstat had the responsibility of proposing very real reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. As the negotiations began to close, U.S. and Chinese negotiators were still in disagreement. Argentina Conference Chairman Raul Estrada-Oyuela was able to persuade each side to accept a compromise that was later approved by the conference. Approximately 2,200 official delegates from 159 nations attended the conference. From the beginning, there were major differences between rich countries such as the United States and poorer countries such as India. The conference produced general policy agreements. Details are to be worked out a year from now in Argentina at the next conference. The compromise allowed the policy of emissions trading to remain intact. Vice President Gore attended the conference and pledged that the United States would reduce its own emissions by 30 percent. This is quite frightening when states are finding that current emission reduction targets are difficult to meet. With regard to these dramatic reductions, the Clinton administration was successful in achieving about half of its target. v How does this impact the automotive industry? The Clinton administration has been very vague about specific industry groups. Part of the justification for this is that details of the agreement are still to be decided. Clearly, the agreement will encourage more mass transportation, cleaner automotive technologies and more restrictive inspection systems. Impact on the aftermarket could be severe when these factors are coupled with the recent Clean Air Act regulations finalized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Although EPA has, so far, kept the president's commitment of increased flexibility for state developed plans by publishing more flexible regulations dealing with testing technologies, the jury is still out on how this policy will be implemented. Debate on the Kyoto Agreement will begin in Congress this year but don't look for the president's administration to move too fast to get Senate ratification. The president and vice president will most likely continue to try and bring more developing countries to support the agreement before the Senate sees a formal request from the president. The early Senate response to Kyoto has not been positive. Labor has joined in support of the agreement while much of corporate America has lined up in opposition. The agreement may be a victim of backlash from recent clean air regulations that were not addressed by Congress in 1997. Whatever the outcome, the automotive industry has much at stake. Particularly, the conference a year from now in Argentina will produce specific policy that will outline the future of automotive emissions.
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