MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1999 Regular Session

To: Environment Prot, Cons and Water Res

By: Senator(s) Burton, Hawks, Kirby

AN ACT TO CREATE A NEW CODE SECTION TO RESTRICT THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY FROM PROPOSING OR IMPLEMENTING ANY RULE RELATED TO GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AS DEFINED BY THE KYOTO PROTOCOL UNTIL RATIFIED BY THE U.S. SENATE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. (1) The Mississippi State Legislature hereby finds that:

(a) The United States is a signatory to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Global Climate Change;

(b) A protocol to expand the scope of the FCCC was negotiated in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, requiring the United States to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane by seven percent (7%) from 1990 emission levels during the period 2008 to 2012, with similar reduction obligations for other major industrial nations;

(c) Developing nations, including China, India, Mexico, Indonesia and Brazil, are exempt from greenhouse gas emission limitation requirements in the FCCC;

(d) Developing nations refused in the Kyoto negotiations to accept any new commitments for greenhouse gas emission limitations through the Kyoto Protocol of other agreements;

(e) With respect to new commitments under the FCCC, President Clinton pledged on October 22, 1997, that "The United States will not assume binding obligations unless key developing nations meaningfully participate in this effort.";

(f) On July 25, 1997, the United States Senate adopted Senate Resolution No. 98 by a vote of 95-0, expressing the sense of the Senate that, inter alia, "the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol to or other agreement regarding, the Framework Convention on Climate Change...which would require the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, and which would mandate new commitments to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions for the Developed Country Parties, unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates specific scheduled commitments within the same compliance period to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties.";

(g) The Kyoto Protocol fails to meet the tests established for acceptance of new climate change commitments by President Clinton and by U.S. Senate Resolution No. 98;

(h) On November 12, 1998, the Clinton administration confirmed its commitment to Kyoto Protocol as the Treaty was signed by Acting U.S. Ambassador Peter Burleigh at the United Nations;

(i) Achieving the emission reductions proposed by the Kyoto Protocol would require more than a thirty-five percent (35%) reduction in projected United States carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions during the period 2008 to 2012;

(j) Developing countries exempt from emission limitations under the Kyoto Protocol are expected to increase their rates of fossil fuel use over the next two (2) decades and to surpass the United States and other industrialized countries in total emissions of greenhouse gases;

(k) Increased emissions of greenhouse gases by developing countries would offset any potential environmental benefits associated with emissions reductions achieved by the United States and by other industrial nations;

(l) Economic impact studies by the U.S. government estimate that legally binding requirements for the reduction of U.S. greenhouse gases to 1990 emission levels would result in the loss of more than nine hundred thousand (900,000) jobs in the United States, sharply increased energy prices, reduced family incomes and wages, and severe losses of output in energy-intensive industries such as aluminum, steel, rubber, chemicals and utilities;

(m) An economic impact study by Wharton Econometrics Forecasting Associates estimates that Mississippi under the same reduction requirements would lose twenty-eight thousand (28,000) jobs, including fourteen thousand six hundred (14,600) manufacturing jobs; and Four Hundred Twenty-three Million Dollars ($423,000,000.00) in tax revenues;

(n) The failure to provide for commitments by developing countries in the Kyoto Protocol creates an unfair competitive imbalance between industrial and developing nations, potentially leading to the transfer of jobs and industrial development from the United States to developing countries;

(o) Federal implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, if ratified by the United States Senate, would entail new congressional legislation whose form and requirements cannot be predicted at this time, but could include national energy taxes or emission control allocation and trading schemes that would preempt state-specific programs intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases;

(p) Piecemeal or other uncoordinated state regulatory initiatives intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases may be inconsistent with subsequent congressional determinations concerning the Kyoto Protocol and with related federal legislation implementing the Kyoto Protocol;

(q) Individual state responses to the Kyoto Protocol, including development of new regulatory programs intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are premature prior to Senate ratification of the Protocol in its current amended form and prior to congressional enactment of related implementing legislation; and

(r) There is neither federal nor state statutory authority for new regulatory programs or other efforts intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for purposes of complying with or facilitating compliance with the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol.

SECTION 2. For the purposes of this act, the following words shall have the definitions ascribed herein:

(a) "FCCC" means the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Global Climate Change.

(b) "Kyoto Protocol" means the protocol to expand the scope of the FCCC that was negotiated in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan.

SECTION 3. (1) The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality shall not propose or adopt any new rule for the intended purpose of addressing the adverse effects of climate change that in whole or in part reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, as those gases are defined by the Kyoto Protocol, from the residential, commercial, industrial, electric utility or transportation sectors until the protocol is ratified by the United States Senate. In the absence of an act of the Mississippi Legislature approving such rules, the Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality shall not submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or to any other agency of the federal government any legally enforceable commitments related to the reduction of greenhouse gases, as those gases are defined by the Kyoto Protocol.

(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or to impede private participation in any on-going voluntary initiatives to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, including, but not limited to, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Green Lights program, the U.S. Department of Energy's Climate Challenge program, and similar state and federal initiatives relying on voluntary participation; provided, however, that such participation does not involve any allocation or other distribution of greenhouse gas emission entitlements pursuant to or under color of the Kyoto Protocol.

(3) This section shall become inoperative upon ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the United States Senate or if Congress otherwise authorizes reduction of emissions of the gases described in this section for the purpose of addressing the adverse effects of climate change.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.