Des Moines, IA—The Iowa Senate today approved Senate File 574, which is the first major bill to address global warming in Iowa. The bill creates an advisory council to find solutions to global warming and sets up a tracking system for global warming pollution.
“With the latest IPCC reports showing the science of global warming conclusive and the consequences severe, the public is ready for solutions, ” said Nathaniel Baer, policy advocate with Environment Iowa. “Today the Iowa Senate took an important first step towards implementing these solutions.”
The bill creates an Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council with voting members that include representatives from Iowa universities, utilities, environmental groups, and government. The Council is charged with considering all policies and strategies for reducing global warming pollution in Iowa in the short-, mid-, and long-term, including one scenario for a 50% reduction by year 2050.
The Council must submit a proposal on these policies and strategies to the legislature and governor by January 1, 2008. The bill appropriates $100,000 to the Department of Natural Resources to provide support for the Council.
Approximately twelve states have a climate change advisory council or task force in place already, according to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Illinois and Wisconsin recently created similar councils or task forces by gubernatorial action.
The bill would also establish a greenhouse gas inventory within the Department of Natural Resources. The DNR would collect data from producers of greenhouse gases, including the amount and type of gas or gases the producer generates.
“We applaud Senator Bolkcom for sponsoring this legislation and all the Senators who voted to approve it,” said Baer.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, recently released a summary of its fourth comprehensive assessment of global warming and climate change. According to the IPCC, warming of the climate is “unequivocal” based on observed changes to our climate, such as increased air and ocean temperatures and widespread snow melting.
The IPCC's next report, due to be released April 6, will focus on the many negative consequences of global warming, including more severe droughts, heat waves, ecological impacts and species extinctions.
Several of Environment Iowa’s recent reports highlight the problems and solutions to global warming, in both Iowa and the United States. In Feeling the Heat, Environment Iowa found that temperatures across Iowa have been rising since year 2000. In Rising to the Challenge, Environment Iowa shows how use renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies can achieve the necessary short-term reductions in global warming pollution by year 2020.
Environment Iowa encourages the full House and Senate to approve the bill and the Governor to sign it.
Please see www.environmentiowa.org for copies of our global warming reports.
Environment Iowa is a non-profit, non-partisan statewide environmental organization that advocates for clean air, clean water, and open spaces.
