COMMERCE COMMITTEE DEMOCRATS
Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member

STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN JOHN D. DINGELL
RANKING DEMOCRAT, HOUSE COMMERCE COMMITTEE
ON THE PRESIDENT'S CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY ANNOUCEMENT

October 22, 1997

The virtues of the President's proposal -- and there are a few -- are problematic. There is no doubt about the need for new technologies and the promise of research. Voluntary measures and incentives are better than mandates. But the fundamental flaw of the Berlin Mandate remains: the developing countries will be under no obligation to limit their emissions, and may be handed a considerable competitive advantage.

Any agreement in Kyoto must do more than extract a vague promise from the developing countries to participate at some point in the future. Leaving aside the unresolved scientific questions, if the climate change phenomenon is real it will not be solved by unilateral action on the part of the United States.

For now, the best that can be said is that they planned to do worse, but could still do much better. I intend to help them do so.

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(Contact: Dennis Fitzgibbons 202/225-3641)


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