University Daily Kansan / Monday, December 9, 1991
3B
In the bag
Mary Stauffer, manager of Ye Olde Sugarosity Shoppe Inc., 15W. Ninth St., prepares cinnamon-flavored popcorn. During the holidays, the store makes up to 120 gallons of flavored popcorn a day, Stauffer said.
Energy Department warns: Curbing pollution not cheap
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Curbing pollution that is warming the Earth will not be cheap, says the Energy Department. It will mean sharply higher prices for gasoline, home heating fuels and elec-
A department report on the economic impact of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, a primary "greenhouse" gas, said the task may be completed by the year 2000 and require steep energy taxes.
The findings, released Thursday, immediately were denounced by environmentalists and other critics, who accused the Bush administration of dissuading to take steps to curtail global warming.
Daniel Becker, a global warming specialist at the Sierra Club, accused the department of "turning a blind eye to simple and cost-free solution that boosts energy efficiency without tax increases."
"The Department of Energy has consistently opposed efforts to deal with the urgent problem of global warming. So it's no surprise that they are producing a report intended to convince its readers that we're better off doing nothing." Sen. Albert Gore Jr., D-Tenn., said through a spokeswoman.
The DOE report, which had been requested by Congress, concluded that carbon dioxide emissions could be cut by 20 percent by the end of the decade, but only by imposing substantial taxes on fossil fuels such as oil or coal to curb their use.
The report said a carbon tax of roughly $500 per metric ton would be needed to meet the 20 percent goal.
This would increase the price of gasoline to as much as $2.28 per gallon, or more than double current prices; the price of heating oil from 89 cents a gallon to $2.34 a gallon; and the price of electricity from 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour to 15 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the report. It said the price of natural gas at the wellhead could quadruple.
Many scientists believe that industrial pollution, primarily carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, is creating a blanket in the atmosphere that will result in a gradual warming of the Earth.
This warming is expected sometime in the middle of the next century to cause significant climatic changes if the pollutants are not reduced, according to these scientists.
Environmentalists and many scientists have said industrial nations must reduce their releases of carbon dioxide by 20 percent by the year 2000 to begin to reverse a trend toward warming. Some European countries already have announced such goals, but the United States has refused to do so because of concern about the economic impact.
In issuing the latest report, Energy Secretary James Watkins reiterated the administration's intentions to approach the matter with caution in light of the potential economic cost.
"Given these high costs, given the uncertain state of our knowledge about how greenhouse gases affect global climate change ... arbitrary policies have been used to unwarranted." Watkins said in a statement.
But critics scoffed at the department's findings.
Gore, who has urged aggressive actions to
deal with global warming, said other studies, including those by the National Academy of Sciences and Congress" Office of Technology Assessment, have concluded that carbon dioxide emissions can be significantly reduced without substantial energy taxes.
Environmentalists have argued that improving automobile fuel economy to the point where cars achieve an average 40 miles per gallon and use of more efficient lights, appliances and industrial equipment would go a long way toward碳ing carbon dioxide emissions.
"That's one way to get to a 20 percent reduction." insisted Becker of the Sierra Club.
But Howard Grunsept, DOE associate deputy secretary for policy, disagreed, and said substantial conservation measures already were included in the DOE's latest analysis.
There must be "major changes in fuel prices" to meet the 20 percent objective, Gruen-specht said.
The DOE report, which had been requested by Congress, concluded that carbon dioxide emissions could be cut by 20 percent by the end of the decade. The report also suggested on fossil fuels such as oil or coal to curb their use.
The report said a carbon tax of roughly $500 per metric ton would be needed to meet the 20 percent goal.
This would increase the price of gasoline to as much as $2.28 per gallon, or more than double current prices; the price of heating oil from 89 cents a gallon to $2.34 a gallon; and the price of electricity from 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour to 15 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the report. It said the price of natural gas at the wellhead could quadruple.
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