U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., has joined Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., to introduce the Lugar-Biden Climate Change Resolution, which calls for U.S. participation in international climate change agreements.

Lugar and Biden introduced the resolution as they endorsed a new report by the Pew Center on Climate Change urging new and more flexible approaches to address climate change.

“It’s critical that the international dialogue on climate change and American participation in those discussion move beyond the disputes over the Kyoto Protocols,” Lugar said in a statement released on Tuesday. “This is what Pew sought to do by bringing together an impressive group of experts and representatives from a number of countries and international business.”

“The flexible road map developed in this report provides us with a way to seek a number of complementary international strategies that are more than just a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach,” Lugar said. “The United States has to reduce its over-reliance on high-carbon petroleum products, not only to address climate change and reduce pollution, but we also have to face the national security challenges that reliance creates.”

Lugar noted that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he chairs, was scheduled to hold a hearing today on those national security challenges. “Oil is the new currency is foreign policy,” he said.

In particular Lugar is pushing for the greater use of cellulosic ethanol as a transportation fuel. “In addition to providing American foreign policy with more room to maneuver in the world, cellulosic ethanol emits far fewer greenhouse gases than oil,” he said. “I’m also optimistic about the development of a market in the trading of carbon credits, and the potential of farmers and foresters to gain both by the production of cellulosic ethanol and in sequestering carbon.”

The Lugar-Biden Climate Change Resolution also proposes the creation of an official Senate Observer Group to ensure bipartisan Senate support for any new agreements. “President Reagan had the foresight 20 years ago to establish an official Senate observer team to follow arms control negotiations,” Lugar said. “That is the way to build bipartisan support in the Senate for major international issues like climate change.”

Posted 11/16/2005