```

[Senate Report 107-99]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                       Calendar No. 226
107th Congress                                                   Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session                                                     107-99
_______________________________________________________________________

                      CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGY AND

                   TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION ACT OF 2001

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 OF THE

                   COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                             together with

                            ADDITIONAL VIEWS

                              TO ACCOMPANY

                                S. 1008

TO AMEND THE ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 1992 TO DEVELOP THE UNITED STATES 
  CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE STRATEGY WITH THE GOAL OF STABILIZATION OF 
  GREENHOUSE GAS CONCENTRATIONS IN THE ATMOSPHERE AT A LEVEL THAT WOULD 
  PREVENT DANGEROUS ANTHROPOGENIC INTERFERENCE WITH THE CLIMATE SYSTEM, 
  WHILE MINIMIZING ADVERSE SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
  IMPACTS, ALIGNING THE STRATEGY WITH UNITED STATES ENERGY POLICY, AND 
  PROMOTING A SOUND NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, TO ESTABLISH A 
  RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM THAT FOCUSES ON BOLD TECHNOLOGICAL 
  BREAKTHROUGHS THAT MAKE SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS TOWARD THE GOAL OF 
  STABILIZATION OF GREENHOUSE GAS CONCENTRATIONS, TO ESTABLISH THE 
  NATIONAL OFFICE OF CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE WITHIN THE EXECUTIVE 
  OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

               November 15, 2001.--Ordered to be printed
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
99-010                     WASHINGTON : 2001

                   COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

               JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan                 FRED THOMPSON, Tennessee
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii              TED STEVENS, Alaska
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois          SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey     GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
MAX CLELAND, Georgia                 PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware           THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi
JEAN CARNAHAN, Missouri              ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah
MARK DAYTON, Minnesota               JIM BUNNING, Kentucky
           Joyce A. Rechtschaffen, Staff Director and Counsel
                       Holly A. Idelson, Counsel
      Timothy H. Profeta, Legislative Counsel to Senator Lieberman
         Hannah S. Sistare, Minority Staff Director and Counsel
       William M. Outhier, Investigating Counsel to the Minority
               Elizabeth A. Vandersari, Minority Counsel
                     Darla D. Cassell, Chief Clerk
                            C O N T E N T S

                                                                   Page
  I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
 II. Background.......................................................4
III. Discussion of Legislation........................................8
 IV. Legislative History.............................................17
  V. Section by Section..............................................18
 VI. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact.................................23
VII. CBO Cost Estimate...............................................23
VIII.Additional Views................................................25

 IX. Changes to Existing Law.........................................34

                                                       Calendar No. 226
107th Congress                                                   Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session                                                     107-99

======================================================================

 
     CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGY AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION ACT OF 2001

                                _______
                                

               November 15, 2001.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Lieberman, from the Committee on Governmental Affairs, submitted 
                             the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 1008]

    The Committee on Governmental Affairs, to whom was referred 
the bill (S. 1008) to amend the Energy Policy Act of 1992 to 
develop the United States Climate Change Response Strategy with 
the goal of stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in 
the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous 
anthropogenic interference with the climate system, while 
minimizing adverse short-term and long-term economic and social 
impacts, aligning the Strategy with United States energy 
policy, and promoting a sound national environmental policy to 
establish a research and development program that focuses on 
bold technological breakthroughs that make significant progress 
toward the goal of stabilization of greenhouse gas 
concentrations, to establish the National Office of Climate 
Change Response within the Executive Office of the President, 
and for other purposes, having considered the same, report 
favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill 
do pass.

                         I. Purpose and Summary

    S. 1008, The Climate Change Strategy and Technology 
Innovation Act of 2001, is a bipartisan bill to forge a 
national response to the problem of global climate change. The 
bill would create a White House Office on climate change, 
charged with constructing a national strategy to stabilize the 
concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It would 
also provide a new focus for, and authorize funding to promote, 
breakthrough technologies to address climate change. As stated 
by the bill's chief sponsor Senator Byrd, ``the legislation 
would establish a regime of responsibility and accountability 
in the Federal sector for the development of a national climate 
change response strategy.'' \1\ Senator Stevens, the lead 
cosponsor, added that ``we need better research capabilities to 
understand global climate change, better planning capabilities 
to react to climate change impact, and better energy technology 
infrastructure to keep pace with America's growing energy 
needs. Senator Byrd's bill will create a process for the United 
States to seriously and responsibly address the climate change 
issues.'' \2\ At the Committee's July 18 hearing on the 
legislation, Senator Lieberman stated that the bill would 
``create a focused, comprehensive effort within the executive 
branch that will provide the leadership and creative work that 
the problem of global warming requires.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Remarks of Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, Congressional 
Record, June 8, 2001, at S 6002.
    \2\ Remarks of Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, Congressional Record, 
June 8, 2001, at S 6003.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Climate change is one of the most complex and daunting 
challenges our nation has faced. While debate continues about 
the precise causes and scope of climate change, there is 
increasing evidence that the Earth's climate is warming and 
that human activity is responsible for most of the changes. The 
consequences, particularly if climate change is left unchecked, 
could be devastating. Already, scientists have reported a 
warming of the earth's temperature, thinning of sea ice, 
shrinking glaciers and other evidence of climatic change due to 
warming. Scientists predict that further warming could produce 
rising oceans, more violent weather patterns, loss of forests 
and other adverse effects.
    To halt this trend, the United States and other nations 
must act decisively to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases 
that are linked to global warming within the last century. Most 
greenhouse gas emissions have extremely long life spans in the 
atmosphere, ranging from decades to thousands of years. Thus, 
gases emitted today are added to what was emitted during the 
20th century. This geometric growth in atmospheric 
concentrations of greenhouse gases means that once the global 
atmosphere hits dangerous levels of greenhouse gases, it will 
be nearly impossible to reverse course. The United States must 
now begin to develop and implement cost-effective solutions in 
order to begin the process of addressing global climate change. 
The weight of scientific evidence suggests that it will be 
impossible to reverse course in a cost-effective manner two or 
three decades from today.
    S. 1008 does not attempt to dictate a predetermined policy 
on climate change. Instead, the bill sets out a process by 
which the Administration must articulate a national strategy on 
climate change and seeks to ensure that the varied, ongoing 
efforts of the federal government are coordinated to best 
effect.
    S. 1008 would create a new National Office of Climate 
Change Response (hereinafter ``White House Office'') in the 
White House. The director would be appointed by the President 
with advice and consent by the Senate. Within one year of the 
bill's enactment, the White House Office would have to produce 
a national strategy to address the problem of climate change. 
The strategy must accomplish four key tasks: (1) examine a 
range of emission mitigation targets and implementation dates 
that would ultimately stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations 
in the atmosphere in an economically and environmentally sound 
manner; (2) address the need for substantially greater private 
and public investment in innovative, next-generation 
technologies; (3) expand research into climate adaptation; and 
(4) expand research so as to resolve the remaining scientific 
and economic uncertainties regarding climate change.
    S. 1008 builds on the work of the 1992 United Nations 
Framework Convention on Climate Change, which established the 
goal of stabilizing the concentration of greenhouse gases in 
the atmosphere ``at a level that would prevent dangerous 
anthropogenic interference with the climate system.'' The 
United States has already committed to this goal and S. 1008 
accepts it as the focus of a national strategy on climate 
change. However, the legislation does not dictateprecisely what 
this level is nor prescribe any specific steps that must be taken to 
achieve stabilization; it only anticipates that the strategy will 
achieve its objective in an economically and environmentally sound 
manner. The strategy, and progress toward meeting its goals, would be 
monitored by an independent review board of experts.
    Another critical portion of the bill would boost 
dramatically the government's efforts to promote breakthrough 
technologies that can help reduce or contain greenhouse gas 
emissions over the long term. The Department of Energy 
(``DOE'') currently has four line offices for energy research 
and development: fossil fuels, efficiency and renewables, 
nuclear energy and basic science. S. 1008 would add a fifth: 
the Office of Climate Change Technology (``OCCT''). This office 
would be charged with focusing on innovative technologies that 
will be needed in future decades, yet that cut across the 
jurisdictions of the existing research offices. The bill 
authorizes $4 billion over 10 years for this office, which is 
designed to supplement, rather than supplant, the existing 
research and development efforts within DOE and other agencies. 
As Senator Stevens stated at the July 18 hearing, ``By making 
necessary research and development efforts now, I think we can 
inspire a generation of technologies that will enhance 
America's chance to be the leader in dealing with global 
climate change.''
    Within the OCCT would be a Center for Strategic Climate 
Change Response. This Center would provide technical support to 
the newly created White House Office and is authorized at $75 
million annually. More broadly, it is intended to serve as an 
innovative think tank on climate change issues, with an 
interdisciplinary and multi-agency focus.
    Finally, Senator Byrd remarked when introducing S.1008, 
``[t]his legislation is intended to supplement, rather than 
replace, other complementary proposals to deal with climate 
change in the near term on both a national and international 
level.'' \3\ The Committee recognizes that Congress is 
currently considering a wide range of additional measures to 
counter climate change. New initiatives on climate change need 
not wait for formulation of the national strategy contemplated 
by S.1008, but should ultimately fit within its framework as 
components of the overall strategy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ Statement of Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, 
Congressional Record, June 8, 2001, at S 6001.
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                             II. Background

                     the problem of global warming

    Global warming is one of the most complex and comprehensive 
environmental, economic, scientific, and technical challenges 
facing the world today. The warming of the global climate 
within the last century is most likely caused by a number of 
anthropogenic factors, the precise interplay of which is not 
yet fully understood.
    Despite the continued existence of uncertainties, however, 
a scientific consensus is coalescing regarding the existence of 
human-caused climate change. In particular, there is growing 
agreement within the scientific community that concentrations 
of greenhouse gases are increasing in the atmosphere, primarily 
due to human activities, resulting in rising surface air 
temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures.\4\ Modelling 
and scientific reasoning also suggest that the changing climate 
will result in a number of additional negative effects on the 
planet, including rising sea levels, decreased precipitation in 
semi-arid regions and increased global frequency of extreme 
weather events.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ See Committee of the Science of Climate Change, Division on 
Earth and Life Studies, National Research Council, Climate Change 
Science; An Analysis of Some Key Questions, (2001) (Hereinafter ``NAS 
Report'') at 2 (``Human activities are responsible for the increase [in 
carbon dioxide concentrations].'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A number of scientific studies and reports have been 
released recently that describe the state of the scientific 
understanding of climate change. In testimony before the 
Committee, Thomas Karl, Director of the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center, 
discussed the science of climate change (hereinafter ``Karl 
testimony'').\5\ He based his information on two assessments, 
one carried out internationally, and one nationally. The 
Committee takes particular note of these two reports: (1) the 
2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on 
Climate Change (``IPCC''); \6\ and (2) ``Climate Change 
Science; An Analysis of Some Key Questions,'' a National 
Academy of Sciences (``NAS'') review of the topic, released in 
2001 on the heels of the IPCC report and conducted at the 
request of the White House.\7\ Mr. Karl served as a 
coordinating lead author and panel member on the IPCC and NAS 
studies, respectively.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\ Eileen Claussen, President of The Pew Center on Global Climate 
Change, testifying before the Committee, stated: ``As we have recently 
learned from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 
confirmed recently by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the 
scientific consensus is very strong that greenhouse gases are 
accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, 
causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to 
rise.'' Claussen written testimony at 1.
    \6\ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2001, 
The Scientific Basis, (2001). (Hereinafter ``IPCC Report'').
    \7\ Although actually conducted by the National Research Council, 
which is affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences, this study 
is known as the National Academy of Sciences or NAS report.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                            The IPCC Report

    The growing scientific consensus on climate change was 
recently enunciated in the ThirdAssessment Report of the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC was jointly 
established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United 
Nations Environment Programme in 1988 to (1) ``assess available 
scientific and socio-economic information on climate change and its 
impacts and on the options for mitigating climate change and adapting 
to it'' and (2) ``provide, on request, scientific/technical/socio-
economic advice to the Conference of Parties to the United Nations 
Framework Convention on Climate Change.'' \8\ Its Third Assessment 
Report on the scientific basis of climate change was the product of 122 
expert scientists serving as lead authors, with assistance from 515 
contributing authors. The draft report was submitted to 420 expert 
reviewers for comment.\9\ James Hansen, Head of the NASA Goddard 
Institute for Space Studies, testified before the Committee: ``The IPCC 
reports produced by hundreds of outstanding scientists, provide an 
invaluable assessment of the status of scientific understanding of 
climate change.'' \10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\ IPCC Report at ii.
    \9\ IPCC Report at iii.
    \10\ Hansen written testimony at 1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Using observational data from around the world, the IPCC 
determined that the information illustrated a ``collective 
picture of a warming world.'' \11\ Specifically, the IPCC based 
its conclusion on the following data:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ``Technical Summary 
of the Working Group I Report,'' contained in Climate Change 2001, The 
Scientific Basis, at 34 (2001). (Hereinafter ``IPCC Technical 
Summary''); See Karl written testimony at 3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Increases of 0.7 to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in land 
and sea surface temperatures over the past century.
     Weather balloon measurements showing that lower-
tropospheric temperatures have been increasing since 1958.
     Decreases in the continental diurnal temperature 
range that coincide with increases in cloud amount, 
precipitation, and increases in total water vapor.
     Decreases in mountain glaciers and ice masses 
nearly worldwide that are consistent with surface temperature 
increases.
     Decreases in snow cover and shortened seasons of 
lake and river ice that relate well to increases in Northern 
Hemisphere surface temperatures.
     The systematic decrease of spring and summer sea-
ice extent and thickness in the Arctic that is consistent with 
increases in temperature over most of the adjacent land and 
ocean.
     Increases in ocean heat and sea level.
     Increases in total tropospheric water vapor in the 
last 25 years.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \12\ IPCC Technical Summary at 34.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Having evidence of a picture of a warming world, the IPCC 
also identified its likely cause, finding that ``[t]here is new 
and stronger evidence that most of the warming over the last 50 
years is attributable to human activities.'' \13\ A range of 
human-caused forcing agents were identified, as indicated in 
Figure 9 from the IPCC's technical summary, reproduced here:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ``Summary for 
Policy Makers,'' contained in IPCC Report at 10; See Karl written 
testimony at 4. 

    In particular, the report identified human-released 
greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous 
oxide, and halocarbons as responsible for a majority of the 
problem; the report noted that the effects of these gases were 
understood with a high level of scientific understanding.\14\ 
The IPCC also identified other possible forcing agents, such as 
aerosols like black carbon or soot (a warming agent) and 
sulphate aerosols (a cooling agent). The IPCC summary chart 
reproduced here characterized the level of scientific 
understanding regarding these other agents as ``low'' or ``very 
low.'' \15\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \14\ IPCC Technical Summary at 37 (Figure 9).
    \15\ IPCC Technical Summary at 37 (Figure 9).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The IPCC found that the levels of the chief greenhouse 
gases have significantly increased due to human activities. As 
Table 1 from the IPCC's technical summary indicates, the level 
of carbon dioxide has risen about 30 percent from preindustrial 
levels, the level of methane has risen about 150 percent, the 
level of nitrous oxide has risen about 16 percent, and the 
levels of some halocarbons have risen from zero to significant 
amounts. 

    Table 1 also indicates the long period of time many 
greenhouse gases remain in the atmosphere, a factor the IPCC 
believed to be ``highly policy relevant.'' \16\ The IPCC stated 
that ``emissions of a greenhouse gas that has a long 
atmospheric residence time is a quasi-irreversible commitment 
to sustained radiative forcing over decades, centuries, or 
millennia, before natural processes can remove the quantities 
emitted.'' \17\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\ IPCC Technical Summary at 38.
    \17\ IPCC Technical Summary at 38; See Karl written testimony at 4-
5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Additionally, the IPCC found that the Earth's climate would 
continue to warm. Based on the analysis of 35 alternative 
scenarios for the future, the IPCC determined that global 
average temperature is projected to rise between 1.4 and 5.8 
degrees Celsius by 2100, with greater warming in particular 
areas, such as the northern regions of North America and 
northern andcentral Asia.\18\ Mr. Karl testified that 
regardless of uncertainties, ``such a projected rate of warming would 
be much larger than the observed 20th century changes and would very 
likely be without precedent during the last 10,000 years.'' \19\ Among 
other effects, such warming would likely make precipitation more 
variable, increase the incidence of extreme weather events, possibly 
weaken ocean circulation, increase sea level by 4 to 35 feet, and 
decrease levels of snow cover and sea ice in the Northern 
Hemisphere.\20\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \18\ IPCC Technical Summary at 67-69.
    \19\ Karl written testimony at 4.
    \20\ IPCC Technical Summary at 71-75; See Karl written testimony at 
4.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

           The National Academy of Sciences (``NAS'') Report

    Following the initial release of the IPCC's findings, the 
White House requested an independent review of the science of 
climate change from the NAS. In particular, Administration 
officials requested the NAS' assistance in ``identifying the 
areas in the science of climate where there are the greatest 
certainties and uncertainties'' and the NAS' views on ``whether 
there are any substantive differences between the IPCC reports 
and the IPCC summaries.'' \21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \21\ NAS Report, App. B. In subsequent discussions, White House 
officials identified the following series of specific questions, all of 
which were addressed in the NAS report:
    --What is the range of natural variability in climate?
    --Are concentrations of greenhouse gases and other emissions that 
contribute to climate change increasing at an accelerating rate, and 
are different greenhouse gases and other emissions increasing at 
different rates?
    --How long does it take to reduce the buildup of greenhouse gases 
and other emissions that contribute to climate change?
    --What other emissions are contributing factors to climate change 
(e.g., aerosols, CO, black carbon soot), and what is their relative 
contribution to climate change?
    --Do different greenhouse gases and other emissions have different 
draw down periods?
    --Are greenhouse gases causing climate change?
    --Is climate change occurring? If so, how?
    --Is human activity the cause of increased concentrations of 
greenhouse gases and other emissions that contribute to climate change?
    --How much of the expected climate change is the consequence of 
climate feedback processes (e.g., water vapor, clouds, snow packs)?
    --By how much will temperatures change over the next 100 years and 
where?
    --What will be the consequences (e.g., extreme weather, health 
effects) of increases of various magnitudes?
    --Has science determined whether there is a ``safe'' level of 
concentration of greenhouse gases?
    --What are the substantive differences between the IPCC Reports and 
the Summaries?
    --What are the specific areas of science that need to be studied 
further, in order of priority, to advance our understanding of climate 
change?
    NAS Report at vii.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The resulting NAS report largely confirmed the findings of 
the IPCC. In particular, the NAS stated ``[t]he IPCC's 
conclusion that most of the observed warming of the last 50 
years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse 
gas concentrations accurately reflects the current thinking of 
the scientific community on this issue.'' \22\ Moreover, the 
NAS observed that, ``[d]espite the uncertainties, there is 
general agreement that the observed warming is real and 
particularly strong in the past 20 years.'' \23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \22\ NAS Report at 3.
    \23\ NAS Report at 3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The NAS also identified carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, 
nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons as the ``most 
important'' greenhouse gases.\24\ In particular, the NAS stated 
that carbon dioxide was ``probably the most important climate 
forcing agent today,'' with an effect approximately equal to 
all other greenhouse gases.\25\ The NAS also observed that 
methane carried an effect at least one-third--and possibly one-
half--as large as the effect of carbon dioxide.\26\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\ NAS Report at 2.
    \25\ NAS Report at 12-13.
    \26\ See NAS Report at 13.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The NAS also expressed concern that sulphate aerosols, 
which appear to perform a cooling function by scattering solar 
radiation back to space, would decrease in the future due to 
clean air regulation and thereby exacerbate the warming 
trend.\27\ The NAS expressed hope that any warming effect 
caused by a decrease in sulphates might be at least partially 
offset by simultaneous reductions in black carbon aerosols (a 
possible warming agent).\28\ The NAS stated, however, that the 
``relative importance'' of black carbon aerosols is ``difficult 
to quantify at this point'' due to uncertainty.\29\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \27\ See NAS Report at 13.
    \28\ See NAS Report at 13-14.
    \29\ NAS Report at 2-3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    With regard to the White House's questions regarding the 
quality of the IPCC summaries, the NAS found that ``the full 
IPCC Working Group I . . . report is an admirable summary of 
research activities in climate science, and the full report is 
adequately summarized in the Technical Summary.'' \30\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \30\ NAS Report at 4-5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                     III. Discussion of Legislation

    Given the importance and complexity of global climate 
change, the federal government needs an aggressive and 
comprehensive strategy to address the problem. S.1008 would 
provide that central direction by creating an office on climate 
change in the White House which would be charged with crafting 
a national strategy on climate change. The bill would also 
provide the structure and funding for a dramatic new focus on 
breakthrough energy technologies to combat global warming.

                           white house office

    Climate change is not a new issue for the federal 
government. Programs to combat climate change can be found in 
nearly every Cabinet-level department or agency in the 
Executive Branch. According to a recent report to Congress from 
the White House, the Executive Branch spent about $3.5 billion 
on climate programs in Fiscal Year 2000 and was estimated to 
spend about $3.9 billion in Fiscal Year 2001.\31\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \31\ See Federal Climate Change Expenditures Report To Congress, 
June 2001 (transmitted to Congress from the White House on June 29, 
2001 in accordance with section 566(b) of the Foreign Operations, 
Export, Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2001, PL 
106-429), Table 1, p. 3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Even so, the federal government lacks a central office to 
coordinate these disparate and varied efforts and provide an 
overarching agenda for the government as a whole. Instead, 
various agencies have defined their own missions with respect 
to climate change. Energy production is the largest source of 
greenhouse gas emissions, and the DOE conducts the lion's share 
of federal research on technologies that can reduce such 
emissions. These efforts include ongoing research and 
development of renewable energy, conservation, nuclear energy 
and cleaner-burning technologies for fossil fuels. The DOE, 
however, is hardly the only player in the climate change field. 
For instance, DOE is working jointly with the Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Transportation, the 
Department of Commerce and the National Science Foundation to 
develop vehicles that will emit fewer greenhouse gases, such as 
hybrid and fuel cell vehicles (the Partnership for a New 
Generation of Vehicles). The Department of Agriculture has 
research programs to promote converting biomass to energy. EPA, 
working collaboratively with the Department of Agriculture, has 
programs to research and promote carbon sequestration (efforts 
to store carbon in the soil or vegetation to prevent its 
release into the atmosphere). Ten different agencies, including 
the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, are involved with 
the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which seeks to provide 
a sound scientific understanding of the human and natural 
forces that influence our climate system.\32\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \32\ ``U.S. Government Agencies Participating in the USGCRP,'' 
found at http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/usagency.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    While each agency has valuable expertise to bring to bear 
on the climate change issue, this decentralized approach also 
has drawbacks. There is no overarching framework to ensure that 
various federal agencies are complementing each other's efforts 
on climate change, and that critical tasks are not falling 
between the cracks, ignored by all agencies. As Eileen 
Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, 
testified at the Committee's July 18 hearing on S.1008:

          This is a monster of an issue and everyone has a 
        legitimate reason to be involved across the government 
        for variety of different reasons. If you do not have a 
        way to focus the effort and coordinate the effort, you 
        just have everybody doing their own thing based on 
        their own set of objectives and the culture of their 
        own agency. You do not have a coherent policy, and it 
        is extremely hard to do, but I think you have to center 
        it in the White House and you have to put some real 
        effort into making it work.

    Currently, there is no specific White House office to 
address climate change. Rather, policy components of climate 
change are addressed to some extent by the existing White House 
Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the Council on 
Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Council of Economic 
Advisors (CEA).\33\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \33\ In April 1997, President Clinton administratively created a 
White House task force on climate change, but the task force was 
disbanded at the conclusion of the Clinton administration.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    S. 1008 would address this problem by creating a new 
National Office of Climate Change Response in the White House. 
The director would be appointed by the President with advice 
and consent by the Senate. The office would prepare a national 
climate change response strategy (discussed below), to be 
reviewed annually and thoroughly updated every two years. The 
bill would also establish an interagency task force on climate 
change response, to be chaired by the director of the White 
House climate change office. The bill authorizes $5 million 
annually for ten years for this office.
    The White House Office is similar in concept and structure 
to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.\34\ Just as the 
drug ``czar'' has brought a new visibility to the drug issue 
generally and the specific policy approach of successive 
administrations, the director of the climate change office 
should provide a symbolic and substantive focal point for each 
administration's efforts on climate. The director will give the 
administration an identifiable point person on this critical 
issue, one with international visibility that will signal the 
depth of this country's commitment to tackling climate change.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \34\ The drug control office was created in 1988 and is responsible 
for establishing policies, objectives and priorities for the national 
drug control program, and for writing an annual drug control strategy 
to be submitted to Congress. This White House office provides a 
central, coordinating presence for the federal government's many 
efforts involving drug control--efforts spread across dozens of federal 
offices, such as the Federal Bureau of Intelligence, the Drug 
Enforcement Agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 
Customs, and the Coast Guard.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    By creating a new office, S. 1008 also ensures that efforts 
on climate change receive consistent and high-level attention, 
and are not subsumed by, or redirected to, other existing White 
House offices. Without a single-minded focus on the topic, the 
risk exists that climatechange may not receive the attention or 
resources it needs at already-existing offices, such as CEQ or OSTP. 
Furthermore, a separate White House office is essential because no 
existing office has expertise in the many disciplines that are involved 
in as multifaceted an issue as climate change.
    The White House Office should draw heavily upon the 
assembled expertise of existing federal programs, represented 
by the interagency task force mandated by S.1008. This task 
force would, at a minimum, include representatives from the 
following departments or agencies: State, Energy, Commerce, 
Treasury, Transportation, Agriculture, Environmental Protection 
Agency, Agency for International Development, U.S. Trade 
Representative, National Security Advisor, National Economic 
Council, Council on Environmental Quality, Office of Science 
and Technology Policy, and the Chairperson of the Subcommittee 
on Global Change Research. The interagency task force should be 
a meaningful forum for member agencies to contribute to the 
preparation of the national climate change response strategy 
and associated reports.

                           national strategy

    S. 1008 also provides the White House Office with the key 
mission of preparing a national strategy on climate change with 
certain substantive elements. As Dale Heydlauff, Senior Vice 
President for Environmental Affairs of American Electric Power 
Co., testified at the July 18 hearing, ``an administrative 
structure without a strategy is nothing more than a suite of 
offices in search of a mission.''
    Within one year of the bill's enactment, the White House 
Office must produce a national strategy that will achieve the 
``stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the 
atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous 
anthropogenic interference with the climate system, as 
contemplated by the United Nations Framework Convention on 
Climate Change, done at New York on May 9, 1992.'' 
Specifically, the strategy must include four key elements 
identified in S. 1008: (1) an examination of a range of 
emission mitigation targets and implementation dates that would 
ultimately stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the 
atmosphere in an economically and environmentally sound manner; 
(2) substantially greater private and public investment in bold 
technologies; (3) expanded research into climate adaptation; 
and (4) expanded research to resolve remaining scientific and 
economic uncertainties regarding climate change.
    The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 
(commonly known as the ``Rio Agreement'') was signed on behalf 
of the United States during the administration of former 
President George H. W. Bush on June 12, 1992, and ratified by 
the United States Senate on October 15, 1992. The ultimate 
objective of the Rio Agreement, as noted above, is the 
``stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the 
atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous 
anthropogenic interference with the climate system.'' The Rio 
Agreement also stated in part that ``the Parties to the 
Convention are to implement policies with the aim of returning 
* * * to their 1990 levels anthropogenic emissions of carbon 
dioxide and other greenhouse gases.'' The Rio Agreement 
specifies that designated ``level should be achieved within a 
time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to 
climate change, to ensure that food production is not 
threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a 
sustainable manner.'' \35\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \35\ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Article 
2.
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    By incorporating this language from the Rio Agreement as 
the overall objective of the national strategy, S. 1008 ensures 
that the United States will live up to the commitment it made 
when it ratified the Rio Agreement nearly a decade ago. S. 
1008, however, does not predetermine what level of atmospheric 
concentration is necessary to prevent dangerous anthropogenic 
interference with the climate system. Rather, it leaves the 
determination of the preferred level to the White House Office. 
In fact, the Committee anticipates that the White House Office 
may initially wish to look at a range of stabilization levels.
    As soon as possible, however, the White House Office should 
identify a single stabilization level that will prevent 
dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. 
The White House Office should report to Congress on how the 
level represents a specific concentration of greenhouse gases 
that can be maintained safely over prolonged periods (on the 
scale of many centuries) without resulting in changes to the 
climate system that have dangerous or adverse consequences for 
human health and welfare, for the stability and productivity of 
agriculture, forestry, and other human systems that interact 
with the climate, or for the integrity of ecological systems. 
The identification of a stabilization level also should take 
into account the finding by the United States Global Climate 
Research Program, an interagency climate research team, that 
``climate change will likely magnify the cumulative impacts of 
other stresses, such as air and water pollution and habitat 
destruction due to human development patterns.'' \36\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \36\ U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program, Climate Change 
Impacts on the United States 9 (2000).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Committee intends that the stabilization level will 
account for the combined effect of all greenhouse gases 
referred to in the proposed Section 1621(6) of the Energy 
Policy Act (EPACT) and will be expressed in terms of a number 
of parts per million of carbon dioxide equivalent. The level 
identified by the Director should reflect consideration of the 
long atmospheric lifetime of most greenhouse gases and the 
difficulty of returning to a given carbon dioxide equivalent 
concentration once such concentration has been exceeded. The 
level should further reflect consideration of the lag between 
the time when such level is reached and the time when 
associated effects (e.g., global average temperature increase; 
sea level rise; and impacts on public health, ecosystems, 
wildlife, fisheries, water supplies, and agriculture) are fully 
manifested. In planning a course of action on greenhouse gases, 
the strategy should take into account not only an ultimate 
concentration level that is safe, but also what interim levels 
reflect a safe rate of change for ecosystems. Finally, the 
Director should establish a process by which the stabilization 
goal can be updated, either upward or downward, to reflect 
progress in our scientific understanding of climate change.
    Once the White House Office has identified a stabilization 
level that will prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference 
with the climate system, it must consider a range of interim 
targets and timetables for reductions of emissions that would 
result in that overall stabilization level. The White House 
Office should prioritize the development of mitigation targets 
for the greenhouse gases that were identified by the IPCC and 
NAS as key warming agents and which have long, irreversible 
residence times in the atmosphere.\37\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \37\ See IPCC Technical Summary at 36-43; NAS report at 2, 12-14.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    At the same time, the strategy should also specify how the 
government should resolve the remaining uncertainties regarding 
climate change. In particular, the Committee believes that 
research should focus on issues such as those identified by the 
NAS in the following excerpt from its report:

          Predictions of global climate change will require 
        major advances in understanding and modeling of (1) the 
        factors that determine atmospheric concentrations of 
        greenhouse gases and aerosols and (2) the so-called 
        ``feedbacks'' that determine the sensitivity of the 
        climate system to a prescribed increase in greenhouse 
        gases. Specifically, this will involve reducing 
        uncertainty regarding: (a) future usage of fossil 
        fuels, (b) future emissions of methane, (c) the 
        fraction of the future fossil fuel carbon that will 
        remain in the atmosphere and provide radiative forcing 
        versus exchange with the oceans or net exchange with 
        the land biosphere, (d) the feedbacks in the climate 
        system that determine both the magnitude of the change 
        and the rate of energy uptake by the oceans, which 
        together determine the magnitude and time history of 
        the temperature increases for a given radiative 
        forcing, (e) the details of the regional and local 
        climate change consequent to an overall level of global 
        climate change, (f) the nature and causes of the 
        natural variability of climate and its interactions 
        with forced changes, and (g) the direct and indirect 
        effects of the changing distributions of aerosol.\38\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \38\ NAS Report at 23.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In developing the national strategy, the White House Office 
should also consider the impacts that may occur or may have 
already occurred in certain sectors and regions of the United 
States due to climate change. This is an issue that is often 
overshadowed when considering climate change but is of vital 
concern to affected areas. Therefore, it is critical to pursue 
climate adaptation research as well as economically and 
environmentally sound options to assist specific regions or 
sectors that are vulnerable to, or may have been particularly 
affected by, climate change.
    The Committee intends that the White House Office, when 
developing the strategy, draw upon the analytical capabilities 
of federal and state agencies with relevant expertise. S. 1008 
would create the Center for Climate Change Response within DOE 
to be one source of analytical support. The White House Office 
shall also draw upon the resources of other agencies. For 
example, the Committee expects that the White House Office 
would make use of the Environmental Protection Agency's 
analytical expertise in: monitoring U.S. greenhouse gas 
emissions; implementing voluntary, regulatory, and market based 
programs including emissions trading; evaluating climate change 
science; and assessing the environmental and economic impacts 
of strategies to mitigate environmental threats. Additionally, 
the Committee urges the White House Office to incorporate the 
Department of Transportation's expertise in assessing the 
potential for emission reductions from the transportation 
sector; the Department of Agriculture's analytical expertise in 
assessing the potential for carbon sequestration by the 
agricultural and forestry sectors; and the expertise of the 
interagency United States Global Climate Research Program on 
climate science.

                        Independent Review Board

    S. 1008 would create an independent review board of 11 
scientific and technical experts to oversee the work of the 
executive branch in developing and implementing the climate 
change strategy. Board members would be nominated by the NAS, 
and appointed by the President with advice and consent by the 
Senate. The review board would be charged with providing 
Congress and the public with independent and accurate annual 
reports of the work of the executive branch on climate change. 
The structure of the proposed board would resemble that of the 
U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, which Congress 
created in 1987 to review federal scientific and technical work 
regarding the disposal of spent nuclear fuel from the nation's 
commercial reactors. The proposed review board is authorized to 
receive $3 million annually.
    The Committee intends that the independent review board 
help to ensure that the strategy produced by the White House 
Office has scientific credibility. The Committee anticipates 
the review board should consist of neutral experts with no role 
in the political structure of the Executive Branch. This 
approach should help ensure that the United States' national 
strategy on climate change retains continuity and credibility 
irrespective of any periodic political shifts in power.
    In establishing the review board, the Committee expects 
that the NAS will secure experts with a broad array of 
expertise, given the vast interdisciplinary nature of the 
climate question. In particular, the NAS should, at a minimum, 
seek experts to cover the relevant ``fields of knowledge,'' as 
defined in S. 1008.

            Creation of Office of Climate Change Technology

    There is widespread agreement that new technologies are 
essential if this country is to reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions. At the July 18 hearing on S.1008, witnesses voiced 
strong support for devoting additional money and attention 
toward the research and development of breakthrough 
technologies to curb emissions. As James E. Edmonds of Battelle 
Memorial Institute testified, technology is the key to 
controlling the cost of efforts to stabilize atmospheric 
concentrations of greenhouse gases: ``Stabilizing the 
concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will 
require a credible commitment to limit cumulative global 
emissions of CO2. Such a limit is unlikely to be 
achieved without cost, but that cost will, in large measure, 
beshaped by the character of the technology options available to limit 
cumulative global emissions of CO2.'' \39\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \39\ Edmonds written testimony at 3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    According to the findings of the Global Energy Strategy 
Program, an international public-private study group, 
technological breakthroughs can reduce the annual cost of 
stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations by at least one to 
two percent of global world product.\40\ Professor John Holdren 
of Harvard University agreed with the importance of new 
technologies in his July 18 written testimony, which called for 
transformative changes in energy systems--``changes that can 
only be achieved in a timely way and at tolerable cost through 
a substantial acceleration of the pace of energy-technology 
innovation.'' \41\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \40\ Global Energy Technology Strategy; Addressing Climate Change 
at 54 (2001) (Hereinafter ``Global Energy Technology Strategy'').
    \41\ Holdren written testimony at 2.
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    Technology can both reduce the amount of energy needed to 
produce something of economic value, and lower the amount of 
greenhouse gases emitted for each unit of energy produced. The 
country needs both types of technological innovations if it is 
to confront the problem of climate change. In fact, the IPCC 
assumes there will be some technological improvements merely to 
maintain the current pace of growth in greenhouse gas 
concentrations rather than face a dramatic escalation.\42\ In 
order to actually stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, 
dramatic technological breakthroughs are needed. In seeking 
these breakthroughs, this legislation does not seek to preclude 
the use of fossil fuels as an energy source. Rather, the focus 
is to channel resources into developing the next generation of 
technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thereby 
augmenting our existing energy infrastructure and ensuring our 
energy diversity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \42\ Global Energy Technology Strategy at 29.
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    The development of breakthrough technologies also holds the 
promise of significant market opportunities for U.S. 
industries. Energy consumption is projected to soar, primarily 
in developing countries, in the coming decades.\43\ In the next 
decade, many countries will restructure their energy systems 
and ``lock in'' certain policies and technologies. If those 
systems do not incorporate new efficiencies, it will be nearly 
impossible to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations as 
contemplated by the Rio Agreement. Helping to supply new energy 
technologies, therefore, is critical toward achieving the goals 
of the Rio Agreement. Moreover, by working to develop energy 
efficient technologies, U.S. industries will share in the 
market opportunities that follow.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \43\ Global Energy Technology Strategy at 21-27.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Yet, U.S. investment in research and development of 
advanced energy technologies--both public and private--has been 
declining rather than increasing.\44\ Even more worrisome, this 
trend is apparently echoed around the globe. Neither the United 
States nor its allies are conducting this critical investment. 
This raises the very real fear that the breakthrough 
technologies that the U.S. and other countries will need to 
stabilize greenhouse gas emissions will not be developed in the 
timeframe necessary to address this urgent problem.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \44\ Global Energy Technology Strategy at 49, indicating that U.S. 
government spending on energy research and development dropped 23 
percent from 1985-1998 and that private sector investment in energy 
research and development dropped 67 percent in real terms over this 
period.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Dale Heydlauff, Senior Vice-President for Environmental 
Affairs at American Electric Power, testified at the July 18 
hearing that private industry cannot and will not provide the 
funding needed for these breakthrough technologies because the 
commercial returns are too far distant: ``One simply cannot 
afford to spend limited capital to achieve emissions reductions 
from existing technology and simultaneously develop the bold, 
breakthrough technologies needed to stabilize atmospheric 
concentrations of greenhouse gases.'' The investment 
calculations of private industry also do not capture all the 
public benefits of such technologies, including reduced 
pollution and decreased reliance on foreign oil. Heydlauff 
acknowledged that private industry must also do more, however, 
and said collaborative, cost-shared research initiatives should 
be developed as some of the technologies move closer to 
commercialization.\45\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \45\ See Heydlauff written testimony at 5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Though many agencies are involved in research concerning 
climate change and greenhouse gases, most of the advanced 
technology development in this area is taking place at DOE. DOE 
currently has four line offices for research and development: 
fossil fuels, efficiency and renewables, nuclear energy and 
basic science. S. 1008 would add a fifth: the Office of Climate 
Change Technology (``OCCT'').
    All of the existing line offices conduct research that may 
be relevant to climate change. However, the work of each is 
subject to certain structural constraints; specifically, they 
tend to focus on one fuel source (e.g. fossil fuels, or wind 
energy) and often are tilted toward near-term, incremental 
improvements. The bill does not seek to supplant such work, but 
rather to supplement it with an intensive new effort on 
breakthrough, perhaps interdisciplinary, technologies that may 
not be viable for many years. While it is impossible to know 
exactly what these breakthrough technologies will look like, 
concepts do exist that merit exploration. One such innovation 
would be a so-called ``photocatalytic'' system that could 
extract the hydrogen atoms from tap water for use in a backyard 
fuel cell to provide electricity for a home. Such a system 
would generate no carbon dioxide. Another example would be a 
facility that could convert biomass to energy, and capture and 
sequester the resulting carbon dioxide emissions. Such a 
facility would actually consume carbon dioxide, since biomass 
absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows. To some extent, the work of 
the new office will consist of building partnerships between 
existing DOE programs on basic science and those on applied 
technologies.
    The new office would be ``fuel neutral,'' without an 
institutional bias toward any one energy source. The Committee 
intends the office to focus on the most promising technologies, 
and foster collaborative research among existing offices in DOE 
and elsewhere. It should conduct use-directed basic research 
that bridges the widely acknowledged ``valley of death'' 
betweentraditional basic science and applied programs that 
could otherwise hinder the development of greenhouse gas management 
technologies.
    The bill authorizes $4 billion over 10 years for this 
office to pursue breakthrough technologies to reduce or capture 
greenhouse gas emissions. This is a significant infusion of new 
resources, roughly doubling the current effort on advanced 
energy technologies. Even so, the spending authorized by the 
bill falls short of some recommendations. As Professor Holdren 
indicated in his written testimony to the Committee, the 
President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology 
(PCAST) urged even larger increases in energy R&D. As early as 
1997, PCAST was urging an increase of $1 billion per year in 
the Department of Energy's budget for research and development 
of applied energy technologies.\46\
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    \46\ President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, 
Federal Energy Research and Development for the Challenges of the 21st 
Century (1997), found at http://www.ostp.gov/energy/index.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    S. 1008 establishes a Center for Strategic Climate Change 
Response (the ``Center'') within the new OCCT. The Center would 
function as a climate change ``think tank'' to promote the 
development of advanced climate change technologies and key 
climate change programs across the federal government.\47\ The 
Committee intends that the Center will provide technical 
support to the White House Office in preparing the national 
climate change response strategy. As such, it should maintain 
core analytical abilities, track progress toward the ultimate 
goal of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, 
and advance the tools and science for understanding climate 
change. The Center's activities should include integrated, 
inter-disciplinary research on climate change issues; a wide 
engagement with national and international stakeholders; and 
education and information-sharing throughout the public and 
private sectors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \47\ The Center would bear some similarity to the newly created 
Tyndall Centre in the United Kingdom. The UK Government created the 
Tyndall Centre to integrate scientific, social and technological 
research to develop a response to global climate change. In spring of 
2000, a consortium of universities, led by the University of East 
Anglia, won the competition to operate the new climate center.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The overall goal of the Center is integration of a wide 
range of innovative scientific and technological research, 
including economic and social research that enables exploration 
and development of sustainable responses to the challenge of 
climate change. Its research should address both climate change 
mitigation and adaptation policy objectives with a particular 
emphasis on integrated assessments. Both domestic and 
international concerns should also be addressed. The Center 
should play a key role in analyzing and investigating the 
potential of flexible, market-based mechanisms to reduce 
greenhouse gas emissions and aid in the transfer of clean 
energy technologies.
    Although the Center would be under the organizational 
auspices of the OCCT, it should be considered a multi-agency 
resource whose responsibilities are not limited to the work of 
the DOE, or even to the OCCT. The Center would involve other 
federal and state agencies, academic institutions, industrial 
partners and the DOE National Laboratory capabilities in order 
to bring a focus to climate change solutions. If needed, the 
Center may establish project offices strategically positioned 
in various parts of the country.

                        IV. Legislative History

    S. 1008, ``The Climate Change Strategy and Technology 
Innovation Act of 2001,'' was introduced by Sen. Robert C. Byrd 
of West Virginia and Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska on June 8, 2001 
and referred to the Governmental Affairs Committee.
    On July 18, 2001, the committee held a hearing on S. 1008. 
Eight witnesses appeared: the bill's chief sponsor, Senator 
Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia; two leading climate 
scientists, Thomas Karl, Director of the National Climatic Data 
Center, and Dr. James E. Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard 
Institute for Space Studies; Eileen Claussen, President of the 
Pew Center on Global Climate Change; Dr. James E. Edmonds, 
Senior Staff Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 
Battelle Memorial Institute; Dale E. Heydlauff, Senior Vice-
President-Environmental Affairs for American Electric Power 
Company; Jonathan Lash, President of the World Resources 
Institute; and Margo Thorning, Senior Vice President and Chief 
Economist for the American Council for Capital Formation. In 
addition, the Committee received written testimony from Prof. 
John Holdren, director of a program on science, technology and 
public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of 
Government, and David Hawkins, Director of the Climate Center 
of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
    The testimony was strongly supportive of the legislation. 
For example, Mr. Heydlauff of American Electric Power--one of 
the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the United States--
testified that S. 1008 ``represents one of the single most 
important legislative initiatives yet introduced in the 
Congress to deal with climate change.'' \48\ Mr. Hawkins also 
supported the bill, stating that it ``would take a significant 
positive step by creating a framework for the United States to 
develop a comprehensive program to combat global warming over 
the medium and long term.'' \49\ Ms. Claussen opined that S. 
1008 ``if enacted quickly and implemented in a serious manner, 
will provide an excellent foundation for climate change policy 
in this country.'' \50\ Finally, Ms. Thorning, whose testimony 
was critical of many other efforts to address climate change, 
stated that ``progress on technology proposals such as those in 
S. 1008 * * * is vitally important.'' \51\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \48\ Heydlauff written testimony at 6.
    \49\ Hawkins written testimony at 2.
    \50\ Claussen written testimony at 4.
    \51\ Thorning written testimony at 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Committee met on August 2, 2001, to consider S. 1008. 
Two amendments were adopted by voice vote.
    One amendment, offered by Senator Thompson, altered the 
definition of ``greenhouse gas'' in the bill to include 
aerosols that influence climate. Although aerosols are actually 
fine particles rather than ``gases,'' they were included in the 
definition of greenhouse gas to indicate that these particles 
can properly be considered in assessing climate change and 
designing a national climate change response strategy under the 
bill.
    Aerosols may play a role in climate change and 
unquestionably pose other risks to human health. Senator 
Thompson stated at the August 2 business meeting that certain 
traditional pollutants that are aerosols--and specifically 
black soot--are not only contributing to global warming, but 
are also killing hundreds of thousands of children every year 
in developing countries. He noted that the Committee heard 
testimony about this problem from Dr. Hansen, a leading climate 
change scientist, who discussed studies not only about the 
climate-forcing effect of black soot, but about its serious 
mortality impact in the developing world. According to a study 
cited by Dr. Hansen, approximately 270,000 children die in 
India each year before reaching age five from particulate air 
pollution, including black soot. Dr. Hansen testified that 
pollution levels in China are comparably bad.\52\ Senator 
Thompson noted that we have the technology to do something 
about black soot emissions right now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \52\ See Hansen written testimony at 4-5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A second amendment, offered by Senator Lieberman, renamed a 
proposed new research and development office within the 
Department of Energy. The office had originally been titled the 
``Office of Carbon Management,'' but was renamed the ``Office 
of Climate Change Technology'' to reflect that its mission 
would encompass research and development of technologies to 
reduce emissions of all greenhouse gases, not only carbon 
dioxide.
    On that same date, the Committee ordered the bill reported 
by voice vote, with no members present dissenting. Senators 
present were Levin, Akaka, Torricelli, Carper, Dayton, 
Thompson, Stevens, Collins, Cochran, and Lieberman.

                     V. Section by Section Summary

Section 1. Short title

    This Act may be cited as the ``Climate Change Strategy and 
Technology Innovation Act of 2001.''

Sections 2. and 3. Findings and purposes

    These sections detail the findings and purposes of the Act. 
Congress finds that there is mounting evidence that an increase 
of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are contributing 
to global climate change, and that these emissions continue to 
increase despite the Rio Agreement--ratified by the U.S. 
Senate--which set a goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas 
concentrations at levels that will prevent dangerous human 
interference with climate. Congress further finds that the 
United States must define a new paradigm for addressing the 
risks posed by climate change. This paradigm recognizes four 
key elements: (1) emissions mitigation measures; (2) technology 
innovation; (3) climate adaptation research; and (4) expanded 
efforts to resolve the remaining scientific and economic 
uncertainty on climate change. Congress finds that such a 
paradigm would be scientifically supportable and economically 
responsible; would incorporate other critical energy, 
environmental, and other policy goals; and is fundamentally 
required if the U.S. is to meet the extraordinary challenge 
posed by climate change.
    Some additional findings are as follows:
    With respect to technology innovation, energy research and 
development--by both the public and private sectors--has 
declined precipitously and has not been focused in a 
comprehensive strategy to combat climate change. The Act seeks 
to reverse this trend and, more specifically, to focus new 
funding on the development of bold, breakthrough technologies 
with the potential to combat climate change.
    Additionally, the international nature of climate change is 
integral to all four elements of the new strategy. This will 
require joint research programs and response strategies, 
assistance to developing countries and countries in transition 
to develop technical and other capacities to respond to climate 
change, and efforts to increase public awareness of the issue.
    The overarching purpose of the legislation, described in 
Section 3, is the development of a ``national focal point for 
climate change'' through the establishment of the offices and 
procedures described in the legislation.

Section 4. United States climate change response strategy and 
        technology innovation

    This Act amends the Energy Policy Act (EPACT) of 1992 and 
creates Subtitle B, Title 16.
            Section 1621. Definitions
    This section defines some of the terms used in the act, 
including the following key definitions:
    ``Climate-friendly technology''--This phrase is defined to 
mean ``any energy supply or end-use technology that, over the 
lifetime of the technology and compared to similar technology 
in commercial use * * * results in reduced emissions of 
greenhouse gases; may substantially lower emissions of other 
pollutants; and may generate substantially smaller or less 
hazardous quantities of solid or liquid waste.'' As reflected 
by the wording, a technology must result in lower greenhouse 
gas emissions to be considered ``climate-friendly technology'' 
under this bill. Additionally, it may lower emissions of other 
pollutants or generate smaller or less hazardous waste.
    ``Greenhouse gas''--The bill defines greenhouse gas first 
as an ``anthropogenic gaseous constituent of the atmosphere 
(including, but not limited to, carbon dioxide, methane, 
nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, 
perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and tropospheric ozone) 
that absorbs and re-emits infrared radiation and influences 
climate.'' The gases listed are simply known examples of 
greenhouse gases and the list does not exclude any other gas 
that meets the definition.
    Secondly, the definition includes ``an anthropogenic 
aerosol (including, but not limited to, black soot) that 
absorbs solar radiation and influences climate.'' Although not 
actually ``gases,'' aerosols were included in the definition of 
greenhouse gas to indicate that these particles should properly 
be considered in assessing climate change and designing a 
national climate change response strategy under the bill. To 
the extent that S. 1008 sets a goal of ``stabilizing'' 
greenhouse gas concentrations, the Committee does not intend to 
endorse a goal of stabilizing aerosols that cause adverse 
environmental and health effects. Instead, the Committee 
anticipates that the government will work to reduce or 
eliminate concentrations of such aerosols, rather than 
stabilizing them.
    ``Stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations'' means 
the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the 
atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous 
anthropogenic interference with the climate system, as 
specified in the Rio Agreement. The Rio Agreement was signed by 
then-President Bush and ratified by the Senate. The bill does 
not specify what this level is, but the Committee intends that 
the national response strategy determine what this level should 
be and that such a determination be continually reevaluated and 
adapted in the course of new scientific knowledge.
    ``Qualified individual''--This definition specifies the 
types of persons who should be eligible for nomination and 
appointment to the independent technical review board. The 
description is meant to ensure that the board includes 
representatives with a broad array of analytical abilities and 
perspectives, and the Committee expects the National Academy of 
Sciences will consult with relevant technical associations or 
other groups to assemble a panel with the necessary breadth and 
depth and interdisciplinary capabilities.
            Section 1622. United States climate change response 
                    strategy
    This section initiates the development of a United States 
Climate Change Response Strategy that encompasses the four key 
elements--(1) emissions mitigation measures; (2) technology 
innovation; (3) climate adaptation research; and (4) expanded 
efforts to resolve the remaining scientific and economic 
uncertainty. The strategy should consider the totality of all 
public and private actions which bear upon the ultimate 
objective of stabilization of greenhouse gases. It should rely 
on objective, quantitative analysis considering energy, 
environmental, economic, and social factors in the creation of 
the strategy, with an appropriate consideration for 
uncertainties. Specifically, the strategy must be developed on 
the basis of a broad range of emission reduction targets and 
implementation dates, including those contemplated by the 
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, that 
culminate in the stabilization of greenhouse gas 
concentrations.
    Sections 1622(b)-(d) describe the reporting requirements of 
the act. The strategy is to be completed and submitted to the 
President and Congress within twelve months of the enactment of 
this Act. It must be updated every two years thereafter, and 
the President would make annual progress reports to Congress.
    Section 1622(f) would require the directors of the DOE's 
major national laboratories to certify each year whether the 
federal government's energy technology research and development 
programs were on track to meet the directives of the national 
strategy and the long-term goal of stabilization of greenhouse 
gas concentrations in the atmosphere. If the directors provide 
a negative report, they would be required to submit reasons for 
that determination and a prescribed course of action to correct 
the deficiencies.
            Section 1623. National Office of Climate Change Response
    This section establishes a National Office of Climate 
Change Response (``White House Office'') within the Executive 
Office of the President. The Director shall be appointed by the 
President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The 
Director shall be responsible for establishing policies, 
objectives, and priorities for a strategy to be submitted to 
the Congress and for ensuring that the strategy is sharply 
focused on the ultimate goal of stabilizing atmospheric 
greenhouse gas concentrations while giving full consideration 
to the short- and long-term economic and social consequences. 
The section authorizes $5 million in new funding for each of 
the fiscal years 2002-2011 for the White House Office.
            Section 1624. Technology Innovation Program through the 
                    Office of Climate Change Technology and the Center 
                    for Strategic Climate Change Response
    Directly supporting the second element of the strategy, 
``technology innovation,'' this section establishes an Office 
of Climate Change Technology (``OCCT'') within the DOE to 
manage a breakthrough technology research and development 
program. The DOE Office Director shall be appointed by the 
Secretary of Energy and shall report directly to the Under 
Secretary or a higher level official. The DOE Office Director 
shall place a special focus on climate-related technology 
research and development that--(1) makes bold, breakthrough 
advances on technologies critical to the long-term 
stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations, which are not 
significantly addressed by other federal programs at this time; 
(2) forges fundamentally new research and development 
partnerships among various DOE programs, particularly between 
basic science and energy technology programs, which have 
significant potential to impact our ability to stabilize 
concentrations at a reduced cost; (3) encourages international 
research and development partnerships that are in the United 
States' interests and make progress on stabilizing 
concentrations, and (4) makes available, through monitoring, 
experimentation, and analysis, data and information deemed 
essential to proving the technical and economic viability of 
technologies central to addressing climate change.
    To help fulfill these functions, the DOE Office Director 
shall establish a Center for Strategic Climate Change Response 
(the ``Center''). This Center shall maintain core analytical 
competencies that are necessary to support design of the 
strategy and track progress toward the ultimate goal of 
stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The 
Center shall advance the tools and science for understanding 
these implications and shall be considered a multi-agency 
resource.
    The DOE Office Director shall advise the Secretary 
regarding necessary changes in organization, management, 
budgeting, and personnel allocation in the DOE programs 
involved inclimate response activities, if their policies and 
discretionary programs are not well-aligned, or contributing 
effectively to, the long-term goal of stabilizing atmospheric 
greenhouse gas concentrations. The section requires DOE to submit to 
Congress a ten-year program plan for the activities of the OCCT and 
authorizes $4 billion in total funds for the period covering fiscal 
years 2002 through 2011 for ``breakthrough'' science and technology 
development. For the Center, this Act authorizes $75 million in annual 
appropriations for fiscal years 2002 through 2011.
            Section 1625. Additional offices and activities
    This section establishes such additional offices and 
activities as are necessary to carry out the goals of the 
strategy. The Committee recognizes that many agencies have 
ongoing programs to assess or combat global climate change. 
This legislation is not intended to disrupt such activities; 
rather, the intent is to provide better coordination of 
existing activities on climate change and the means to 
recognize and fill any gaps in the current effort. This section 
recognizes that, in addition to the structural changes 
authorized at the DOE, the preparation or implementation of a 
national climate change response strategy may require the 
creation of new programs or offices in other agencies. At the 
same time, the Committee does not intend to sanction or 
encourage the creation of unnecessarily large or duplicative 
programs in other agencies.
            Section 1626. United States Climate Change Response 
                    Strategy Review Board
    This section establishes an independent, nonpartisan United 
States Climate Change Response Strategy Review Board comprised 
of 11 individuals representing a diverse set of scientific and 
technological disciplines. The NAS and technical societies 
representing the relevant disciplines shall provide a list of 
22 candidate members of the Review Board to the President 
within 60 days of enactment of this Act. The President shall 
appoint 11 of these individuals to the Review Board with the 
advice and consent of the Senate. The Review Board is expected 
to play a prominent, nonpartisan, and independent role in 
reviewing the work of the National Office of Climate Change 
Response, the United States Climate Change Response Strategy, 
and the work of federal agencies in meeting commitments under 
the strategy. This Act authorizes $3 million in new funding for 
each of the fiscal years 2002-2011 for the Review Board.
    As described in Section 3 (``Purposes'') of the Act, the 
review board is charged with reviewing the strategy and 
annually assessing progress toward the goal of stabilization of 
greenhouse gas concentrations. The Board's duties also include 
assessing the performance of each federal agency that has 
responsibilities under the strategy, as well as the adequacy of 
these agencies' budgets to fulfill their responsibilities. The 
Committee notes that this is not meant to encourage or endorse 
a significant realignment of resources among agencies on the 
issue of climate change response, but rather to determine 
whether each agency is being properly funded to fulfill its 
agreed upon mission.
            Section 1627. Authorization of appropriations
    As detailed above, this Act authorizes a total of 
$4,830,000,000 to remain available until September 30, 2011, 
which shall be considered in addition to existing energy 
research and development and scientific authorizations.

                  VI. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact

    Paragraph 11(b)(1) of the Standing Rules of the Senate 
requires that each report accompanying a bill evaluate ``the 
regulatory impact which would be incurred in carrying out this 
bill.''
    The enactment of this legislation will not have significant 
regulatory impact.

                         VII. CBO Cost Estimate

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                   Washington, DC, August 22, 2001.
Hon. Joseph I. Lieberman,
Chairman, Committee on Governmental Affairs,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 1008, the Climate 
Change Strategy and Technology Innovation Act of 2001.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Lisa Cash 
Driskill.
            Sincerely,
                                          Dan L. Crippen, Director.
    Enclosure.

S. 1008--Climate Change Strategy and Technology Innovation Act of 2001

    Summary: S. 1008 would authorize the appropriation of $483 
million a year over the 2002-2011 period for research, 
development, and other activities related to climate change. 
Specifically, it would establish two new offices within the 
Department of Energy to conduct research and development on 
climate change technology. It also would establish an office 
within the Executive Office of the President that would work 
with an interagency task force to create a strategy for the 
United States to manage climate change issues. Last, the bill 
would establish a review board to monitor the progress of the 
United States in meeting the goals of the strategy. Assuming 
appropriation of the authorized amounts, CBO estimates that 
implementing the bill would cost about $2 billion over the 
2002-2006 period.
    According to the Office of Management and Budget, in fiscal 
year 2001, more than $1.7 billion was appropriated for the 
United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), a multi-
agency program that manages research and other activities 
related to climate change. Amounts authorized to be 
appropriated under S. 1008 would be in addition to any 
appropriations for the USGCRP.
    The bill would not affect direct spending or receipts; 
therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures would not apply. It 
contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as 
defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would 
not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
    Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated 
budgetary impact of S. 1008 is shown in the following table. 
The costs of this legislation fall within budget function 270 
(energy).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                     By fiscal year, in million of dollars--
                                                               -------------------------------------------------
                                                                  2002      2003      2004      2005      2006
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  CHANGES IN SPENDING SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION

Authorization Level...........................................       483       483       483       483       483
Estimated Outlays.............................................       196       388       483       483       483
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Basis of estimate: For this estimate, CBO assumes that S. 
1008 will be enacted near the beginning of fiscal year 2002. 
Outlays are estimated using historical spending rates for 
similar programs.
    S. 1008 would establish an Office of Climate Change 
Technology and a Center for Strategic Climate Change Response 
within the Department of Energy. The bill would authorize an 
annual appropriation of $475 million over the 2002-2011 period 
for the two offices to carry out several responsibilities, 
including tracking climate change around the world, and 
managing a new research and development program focused on 
creating new technology to mitigate climate change. CBO 
estimates that implementing these programs would cost almost $2 
billion over the 2002-2006 period, and about $4 billion over 
the 2002-2011 period.
    S. 1008 also would establish and authorize appropriations 
for other offices related to climate change. Specifically, the 
bill would:
     Create a National Office of Climate Change 
Response within the Executive Office of the President and 
authorize the appropriation of $5 million a year over the 2002-
2011 period;
     Create a Climate Change Response Strategy Review 
Board and authorize the appropriation of $3 million a year over 
the 2002-2011 period; and
     Establish an interagency task force to assist the 
National Office in developing the United States Climate Change 
Response Strategy.
    CBO estimates that implementing these other programs would 
cost $38 million over the 2002-2006 period and $78 million over 
the 2002-2011 period.
    Pay-as-you-go considerations: None.
    Intergovernmental and private-sector impact: S. 1008 
contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as 
defined in UMRA and would not affect the budgets of State, 
local, or tribal governments.
    Estimate prepared by: Federal costs: Lisa Cash Driskill; 
impact on State, local, and tribal governments: Elyse Goldman; 
impact on the private sector: Lauren Marks.
    Estimate approved by: Peter H. Fontaine, Deputy Assistant 
Director for Budget Analysis.

                         VIII. Additional Views

            ADDITIONAL VIEWS OF RANKING MEMBER FRED THOMPSON

    While the Climate Change Strategy and Technology Innovation 
Act, S. 1008, passed the Committee with a bipartisan voice 
vote, I believe it important to express additional views not 
reflected in the main body of the Committee Report.
    Despite the United States' investment in climate change 
science over the past decade, numerous gaps remain in our 
understanding of climate change. The National Academy of 
Sciences identified in its report, Climate Change Science: An 
Analysis of Some Key Questions (June 2001), critical 
uncertainties about the science of climate change including the 
following:
          Conflict between global atmospheric and ``surface'' 
        temperature measurements;
          How much carbon is sequestered by oceans and land 
        biosphere and how much remains in the atmosphere;
          The feedbacks in the climate system that determine 
        the magnitude and rate of temperature increases;
          The direct and indirect effects of aerosols;
          The details and impacts of regional climate change 
        resulting from global climate change;
          The nature and causes of the natural variability of 
        climate and its interactions with forced changes; and
          The emissions and usage of fossil fuels and the 
        future emissions of methane.
    Although there are many scientific uncertainties about 
climate change, I want to reiterate my belief that we need to 
responsibly study, understand and manage, if necessary, its 
risk. S. 1008 offers an opportunity for progress on this issue 
by promoting the development of technologies to reduce the risk 
of climate change. Like many of my colleagues, I support a 
technology-driven strategy. In my view, S. 1008 is an admirable 
first step in addressing this complex issue and I appreciate 
and commend Senators Byrd and Stevens for their efforts in this 
regard. I do believe that several changes in the legislation 
could help it accomplish the authors' goals.
    At the outset, I believe the bill would have benefitted 
from more attention by the Committee. S. 1008 authorizes $4.8 
billion in appropriations and makes permanent structural 
changes to the Executive Branch. Yet we only had one hearing, 
and it focused more on the general issue of global warming than 
the details of the bill. Details matter. Some problems with the 
bill were easily curable. For example, the new Department of 
Energy office that the bill would establish originally was 
called the ``Office of Carbon Management.'' But there are many 
other contributors to climate change beyond CO2. The 
name of the Office needed to be changed to reflect this 
reality, and I appreciated that Senator Lieberman offered an 
amendment at the markup to do so. But that is merely a drafting 
issue. I am concerned that there are more fundamental problems 
with the bill.
    First, S. 1008 calls for the development of a national 
strategy that has as its aim the ``stabilization of 
concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,'' but 
does not include any programs that would provide for emissions 
reductions by nations other than the United States. It is a 
simple scientific fact that cuts in U.S. emissions alone will 
not lead to stabilization of global atmospheric concentrations 
of greenhouse gases so long as the developing nations of the 
world continue to increase their emissions as they grow their 
economies in the coming decades. In this respect, S. 1008 is 
similar to the flawed Kyoto Protocol, which does not contain 
any commitment on the part of developing countries to reduce 
emissions. An emerging national strategy to address climate 
change must contain a component that addresses the transfer of 
advanced energy technologies to developing countries such as 
the international technology transfer program proposed by 
Senators Murkowski, Craig, Hagel, and Domenici in S. 1294, the 
Climate Change Risk Management Act of 2001.
    Second, S. 1008 adds new layers to an already overlayered 
and duplicative government bureaucracy. The Executive Office of 
the President currently has ample authority to coordinate 
Federal agency activities. I believe it is sufficient to 
specifically charge the President with the responsibility of 
developing and periodically revising a national strategy to 
address climate change as a roadmap to guide Federal agency 
activities. This is the approach followed in S. 1294, and it 
may be worth considering as an alternative to the overlayering 
produced by this bill.
    In addition, S. 1008 would authorize a new $75 million 
Center for Strategic Climate Change Response within the 
Department of Energy which, in my opinion, simply duplicates 
existing analytical activities already carried out in the 
Department of Energy and its national laboratories, or in the 
private sector with the support of the Department.
    Also, an independent Climate Change Response Strategy 
Review Board would be created to oversee the activities of the 
Executive Office of the President and Federal agencies with 
respect to climate change and the national strategy. The 
functions intended to be carried out by this Board could be 
effectively carried out by the National Academies, who already 
have the necessary expertise in science, engineering, and 
medicine to carry out an effective review of any climate change 
strategy.
    Third, the legislation originally focused solely on 
reductions of gaseous agents such as carbon dioxide. However, 
the Committee was informed that certain traditional pollutants 
that are aerosols--and specifically black soot--are not only 
contributing to global warming, but also are killing hundreds 
of thousands of children every year in developing countries. At 
our hearing on S. 1008, we heard testimony about this problem 
from Dr. Jim Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for 
Space Studies and renowned expert on climate change. Dr. Hansen 
called to our attention studies indicating that in India, about 
270,000 children die each year from black soot before they 
reach the age of five. China has comparable mortality rates. 
The transfer of more efficient technologies could reduce both 
local and regional air pollution, and mitigate the effects of 
climate change caused by the release of aerosols from 
incomplete combustion.
    I appreciate that the Committee accepted by voice vote my 
amendment to include black soot within the scope of the bill. 
The magnitude of this problem is staggering and I think we 
would have been seriously remiss if we had failed to do 
something about a pollutant that not only is a climate warming 
agent in the developing world but also is literally killing 
hundreds of thousands of children every year. On top of this, 
we don't have to wait 20 years for additional research since we 
have the technology to do something about this right now. Dr. 
Hansen wrote a strong letter in support of my amendment, a copy 
of which follows.
    In summary, while I support the intent of S. 1008 to 
promote a long-term, technology-driven approach to addressing 
climate change, there are several shortcomings in the 
legislation as approved by the Committee. I look forward to 
working with my colleagues in the Senate, particularly the 
authors of S. 1008, Senators Byrd and Stevens, and the authors 
of S. 1294, Senators Murkowski, Craig, Hagel and Domenici, to 
enact a truly comprehensive national climate change strategy 
that tackles this important problem facing the Nation and the 
world.
                                                     Fred Thompson.
                                ------                                

                  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
                       Goddard Institute for Space Studies,
                                      New York, NY, August 1, 2001.
Hon. Fred Thompson,
Ranking Member, Committee on Governmental Affairs, Dirksen Senate 
        Office Building, Washington, DC.
    Dear Senator Thompson: I strongly concur with proposed 
changes to S. 1008, the ``Climate Change Strategy and 
Technology Innovation Act'', that Paul Noe of your staff 
discussed with me today, specifically expanding the scope of 
the bill to include other anthropogenic climate forcing agents. 
As I testified before your committee on July 18, black soot is 
an important source of global warming, causing a forcing one-
third to one-half as large as that of carbon dioxide. Moreover, 
the atmospheric residence time of black soot is small, so, 
unlike carbon dioxide, if the sources of black soot are reduced 
the amount in the air will fall quickly. In that sense, black 
soot is similar to tropospheric ozone, another true pollutant 
that causes a climate forcing one-third to one-half as large as 
carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, neither black soot nor 
tropospheric ozone are included in the Kyoto Protocol.
    The global health effects of black soot and tropospheric 
ozone are truly staggering and warrant attention comparable to 
that being accorded to carbon dioxide and other climate forcing 
agents. The particulates (aerosols or fine particles in the 
air) are especially troublesome. Black soot (arising from 
burning of diesel, coal and biomass, and, in developing 
countries, from household burning of field residue, cow dung 
and wood) is particularly at fault, as the particles act like 
tiny sponges that absorb toxic organic bits. When breathed in, 
these tiny particles penetrate human tissue deeply, some of the 
smallest entering the blood stream, causing respiratory and 
cardiac problems. This pollution is particularly deadly in the 
developing world. A recent paper in the Proceedings of the 
National Academy of Sciences estimated that 270,000 children in 
India under the age of five die each year of acute respiratory 
infections caused by this air pollution. The numbers in China 
are comparable. Globally, the number of premature deaths per 
year from black soot is approximately one million.
    I emphasize that the prospects for pay-off in incorporating 
these pollutants in the bill are quite large, because the 
technologies for reducing the pollutants already exist and 
still further improvements should be encouraged. Further, there 
is the potential for a large near-term double pay-off, because 
reducing these constituents both would (1) reduce climate 
forcing, and (2) improve public health and save countless 
lives.
    If I can clarify any of these topics, I would be glad to 
provide further information.
            Sincerely,
                                         James E. Hansen, Director.

                 ADDITIONAL VIEWS OF SENATOR VOINOVICH

    I was pleased to support and cosponsor S. 1008 as reported 
by the Committee. I believe it is important to encourage 
further research on climate change and to support the 
development of new breakthrough technologies for greenhouse gas 
concentrations. However, during the markup of the legislation 
by the full Committee I raised several issues with the 
legislation which I believe need to be addressed before any 
further consideration by the Senate. In addition, I believe 
that the report filed by the majority for this bill, S. 1008, 
overstates what is known regarding the state of the science of 
climate change and downplays the considerable uncertainties.
    It is precisely the fact that we know so little about what 
might cause climate change and what the potential effects might 
be that convinced me to cosponsor this bill, along with the 
addition of a key amendment by the ranking member Senator 
Thompson concerning ``black soot carbon''. Black soot carbon is 
the only greenhouse gas which actually causes deaths, killing 
270,000 children in India alone each year. One of the many 
failures of the Kyoto Treaty is the fact that it ignores the 
black soot carbon issue. In addition, I am concerned that the 
Majority's Report gives too much credence to some predictions 
of hypothetical catastrophic effects of climate change by 
taking these predictions as fact and ignoring the tremendous 
uncertainties.
    I have several concerns with the bill itself which need to 
be addressed before I can support additional action on the 
legislation. The bill authorizes almost $5 billion dollars in 
new spending and I am not convinced that these funds will be 
well coordinated with the current research programs. Before 
Congress authorizes new funding, improvements in the 
coordination process needs to be addressed. The bill also 
creates a new Office in the White House and I am afraid that we 
are just creating a new bureaucracy. Finally, the bill has no 
meaningful mechanism to transfer technology to developing 
nations. This is vital if we are to be successful in addressing 
the most dangerous greenhouse gases such as black soot carbon. 
I believe the fundamental goals of the legislation of promoting 
scientific research and new technologies could be hampered by 
the bureaucratic processes established by the Bill.
    Regarding the state of the science, the Majority has 
ignored many of the key uncertainties regarding climate change. 
On May 2nd of this year, I chaired a Senate Environment and 
Public Works Committee hearing on the Science of Climate 
Change. One of the witnesses at the hearing, Dr. Richard S. 
Lindzen of MIT and a co-author of the IPPC Report, spoke to the 
issue of the current uncertainties saying, ``the whole issue of 
consensus and skeptics is a bit of a red herring. If, as the 
news media regularly report, global warming is the increase in 
temperature caused by man's emissions of CO2 that 
will give rise to rising sea levels, floods, droughts, weather 
extremes of all sorts, plagues, species elimination, and so on, 
then it is safe to say that global warming consists in so many 
aspects, that widespread agreement on all of them would be 
suspect ab initio. If it truly existed, it would be evidence of 
a thoroughly debased field. In truth, neither the full text of 
the IPCC documents nor even the summaries claim any such 
agreement. Those who insist that the science is settled should 
be required to state exactly what science they feel is settled. 
In all likelihood, it will turn out to be something trivial and 
without policy implications except to those who bizarrely 
subscribe to the so-called precautionary principle.''
    Dr. Lindzen also commented in his testimony on the 
conflicting findings of the climate models commenting, ``Our 
own research suggests the presence of a major negative feedback 
involving clouds and water vapor, where models have completely 
failed to simulate observations (to the point of getting the 
sign wrong for crucial dependences). If we are right, then 
models are greatly exaggerating sensitivity to increasing 
CO2. Even if we are not right (which is always 
possible in science; for example, IPCC estimates of warming 
trends for the past twenty years were almost immediately 
acknowledged to be wrong--so too were claims for arctic ice 
thinning), the failure of models to simulate observations makes 
it even less likely that models are a reliable tool for 
predicting climate.''
    In concluding his statement before the Environment 
Committee Dr. Lindzen summed up the need for more scientific 
research. He said, ``The question of where do we go from here 
is an obvious and important one. From my provincial 
perspective, an important priority should be given to figuring 
out how to support and encourage science (and basic science 
underlying climate in particular) while removing incentives to 
promote alarmism. The benefits of leaving future generations a 
better understanding of nature would far outweigh the benefits 
(if any) of ill thought out attempts to regulate nature in the 
absence of such understanding. With respect to any policy, the 
advice given in the 1992 report of the NRC, Policy Implications 
of Greenhouse Warming, remains relevant: carry out only those 
actions which can be justified independently of any putative 
anthropogenic global warming.''
    The state of the science, contrary to the Majority report, 
is constantly changing, as evidenced by a report last month by 
the International Association of Quarternary Research (INQUA). 
They reported that the connection between heat and rising sea 
levels is not as simple as the IPCC claims, and that the 
connection between sea levels and temperature increase had not 
yet been established. The INQUA stated that the average 
temperature during the mid-1200s was one degree Celsius warmer 
than present temperatures and the sea level had remained 
unchanged.
    Even the IPPC has acknowledged in the past the large 
uncertainties involved in the measurement of climate data, the 
report states that, ``In observed data, any signal of human 
effects on climate must be distinguished from the background 
noise of climate fluctuations that are entirely natural in 
origin. . . . It is difficult to separate a signal from the 
noise of natural variability in the observations. This is 
because there are large uncertainties in the evolution and 
magnitude of both human and natural forces, and in the 
characteristics of natural internal variability, which 
translate to uncertainties in relative magnitudes of signal and 
noise'' (Climate Change 1995: The Science of Climate Change, 
Summary for Policymakers, Accepted by the Intergovernmental 
Panel on Climate Change, at 41.).
    Dr. Benjamin Santer with the Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory, who was a lead author of the Science Section of the 
United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 
Second Assessment Report, published with ten co-authors an 
article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 
in December 1999 entitled, Detection and Attribution ofRecent 
Climate Change: a Status Report. In it he concludes, ``Given the large 
model uncertainties and limited data, a reliable weighting of the 
different factors contributing to the observed climate change cannot 
currently be given. . . . By most estimates the anthropogenic signal is 
currently comparable in magnitude to the upper limits of the natural 
climate noise. Such a low signal to noise ratio makes clear attribution 
statements difficult at this time. . . . In short, the current state of 
affairs is not satisfactory.'' This casts doubt into our ability to 
make definitive statements regarding the scientific data.
    Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASA's Goddard Institute who 
rasied the issue of Black Soot Carbon before this Committee, 
presented the following perspective to the National Academy of 
Sciences in October of 1998, ``The forcings that drive long-
term climate change are not known with an accuracy sufficient 
to define future climate change. . . . The summary implication 
is a paradigm change for long-term climate projections: 
uncertainties in climate forcings have supplanted global 
climate sensitivity as the predominant issue.'' This statement 
underscores the importance of more research to better 
understand the uncertainties surrounding climate change.
    I believe this is an important piece of legislation, given 
some fundamental changes regarding the funding and the affect 
on the bureaucracy. However, as I have stated above, I believe 
the Majority Report downplays the vast uncertainties 
surrounding the climate change issue. These issues need to be 
more fully explored before we as a country commit to any type 
of mandatory reduction of CO2. I am extremely 
pleased that black carbon soot was included in this 
legislation, because the control of this substance will have a 
more definitive impact on public health than any other measure 
included in this legislation. I look forward to working with my 
colleagues on the Committee to address these concerns in the 
coming days. I am committed to passing a bill that addresses 
this important issue.

                                               George V. Voinovich.

                  ADDITIONAL VIEWS OF SENATOR BENNETT

    While I have some reservations about S. 1008, I commend 
Senator Byrd and Senator Stevens for bringing a thoughtful 
piece of legislation before the committee to address climate 
change.
    The purpose of S. 1008 is to develop a climate change 
strategy in the United States, including the examination of ``. 
. . a range of emission targets and implementation dates that 
would ultimately stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the 
atmosphere in an economically and environmentally sound 
manner.'' Environmental policy has been implemented in the past 
with little consideration, or even understanding, of economic 
impact. While S. 1008 makes a positive attempt to include some 
economic considerations, the unanswered scientific questions on 
the underlying issue of climate change continue to be of 
concern.
    As already noted, the global mean temperature has risen 
0.7+F to 1.4+F in the 20th century. However, many scientists 
point out that global warming is not a uniform occurrence. The 
contiguous United States, which has the best temperature record 
keeping in the world, has experienced a cooling of its mean 
temperature at the same time as the global mean temperatures 
increased. The tropics show no trend for higher temperatures. 
Much of the increase in temperature has occurred at higher 
latitudes, at night and during the winter. While Marrakech, 
Morocco has had no increase in mean temperature, Novosibirsk, 
Russia has had an increase in winter temperatures. Siberia's 
average winter nighttime temperature has risen from -42+F to 
-40+F. Is this a negative impact that needs to be changed?
    Advocates of stabilization targets of greenhouse gases have 
argued that rising concentrations of these gases will lead to a 
wide range of dire consequences, i.e. rising sea levels, more 
violent weather patterns, excessive rain, drought, and loss of 
forests. However, while the global mean temperature has been 
rising over the last hundred years, mankind had its most 
prosperous century ever. Around the world, infant mortality 
fell, life expectancy rose, and global economic production 
exploded in the 20th century. The benefits cannot be ascribed 
to rising global temperatures, but they do demonstrate that 
catastrophic consequences do not necessarily follow.
    While S. 1008 is not the Kyoto Protocol, it similarly seeks 
to establish targets for stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions. 
Thus, we can learn something by reviewing the Kyoto Protocol. 
The Kyoto Protocol has been estimated to reduce the expected 
global mean temperature in 2100 by 0.76+F. Dr. Bjorn Lomborg, a 
statistician in Denmark, has demonstrated that without the 
Kyoto Protocol or any mitigation of greenhouse gases, the 
expected temperature in 2100 will be reached by the year 2094.
    The Energy Information Agency (EIA) at the Department of 
Energy attempted to quantify the economic cost of greenhouse 
gas mitigation. EIA produced an estimate of the costs of the 
Kyoto Protocol and asked six respected economic consulting 
agencies to provide estimates of these costs.\1\ EIA estimates 
that the cost of Kyoto in 2010 would be 4.2 percent of GDP, 
which is a large enough reduction to put the United States 
economy into a severe recession. The range of cost estimates 
were from the high of 4.2 percent of GDP to a net gain under 
the Kyoto treaty of 1.0 percent of GDP.\2\ Most of the cost 
estimates were in the magnitude of 2.4 percent loss of GDP. If 
the majority of these estimates are correct, we could be 
devoting a substantial portion of our GDP to buy ourselves six 
years of slightly lower temperatures. This is comparable to 
paying a premium of $1,000 per year for a insurance policy that 
will provide a $60 benefit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ The six were WEFA, Charles River Associates, the Pacific 
Northwest National Laboratory, MIT, the Electric Power Research 
Institute (EPRI), and DRI.
    \2\ EPRI was the only group to predict positive benefits from the 
Kyoto protocol.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I recognize the complexity of the science cannot be 
captured in five paragraphs, or in a simple insurance analogy. 
However, I believe we must continue to wrestle with these 
issues to get as clear a picture of the future as possible. It 
will be an expensive mistake if we err too much on either side.
    Again, I commend my colleagues for their attempt to insert 
a more balanced approach into what has been a highly charged, 
and emotional debate. This is a complex issue that needs the 
added light of sound science. I look forward to working with my 
colleagues to address this issue in a thoughtful, responsible 
way.

                                                 Robert F. Bennett.

                      IX. Changes to Existing Law

    In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by 
S. 1008 as reported are shown as follows (existing law proposed 
to be omitted is enclosed in brackets, new matter is printed in 
italic, and existing law in which no change is proposed is 
shown in roman):

                           UNITED STATES CODE

                TITLE 42--THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

                      CHAPTER 134--ENERGY POLICY

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

                 Subchapter VII--Global Climate Change

Sec. 13381. Report

                     Subtitle A--General Provisions

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    Subtitle B--United States Climate Change Strategy and Technology 
                               Innovation

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``SEC. 1621. DEFINITIONS.

    ``In this subtitle:
          ``(1) Center.--The term `Center' means the Center for 
        Strategic Climate Change Response established by 
        section 1624(e).
          ``(2) Climate-friendly technology.--The term 
        `climate-friendly technology' means any energy supply 
        or end-use technology that, over the life of the 
        technology and compared to similar technology in 
        commercial use as of the date of enactment of this 
        subtitle--
                  ``(A) results in reduced emissions of 
                greenhouse gases;
                  ``(B) may substantially lower emissions of 
                other pollutants; and
                  ``(C) may generate substantially smaller or 
                less hazardous quantities of solid or liquid 
                waste.
          ``(3) Department.--The term `Department' means the 
        Department of Energy.
          ``(4) Department office.--The term `Department 
        Office' means the Office of Climate Change Technology 
        of the Department established by section 1624(a).
          ``(5) Federal agency.--The term `Federal agency' has 
        the meaning given the term `agency' in section 551 of 
        title 5, United States Code.
          ``(6) Greenhouse gas.--The term `greenhouse gas' 
        means--
                  ``(A) an anthropogenic gaseous constituent of 
                the atmosphere (including, but not limited to, 
                carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, 
                chlorofluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, 
                perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and 
                tropospheric ozone) that absorbs and re-emits 
                infrared radiation and influences climate; and
                  ``(B) an anthropogenic aerosol (including, 
                but not limited to, black soot) that absorbs 
                solar radiation and influences climate.
          ``(7) Interagency task force.--The term `Interagency 
        Task Force' means the United States Climate Change 
        Response Interagency Task Force established under 
        section 1623(d).
          ``(8) Key element.--The term `key element', with 
        respect to the Strategy, means--
                  ``(A) definition of interim emission 
                mitigation targets coupled with specific 
                mitigation approaches that cumulatively result 
                in stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                concentrations;
                  ``(B) a national commitment--
                          ``(i) to double energy research and 
                        development by the United States public 
                        and private sectors; and
                          ``(ii) in carrying out such research 
                        and development, to provide a high 
                        degree of emphasis on bold, 
                        breakthrough technologies that will 
                        make possible a profound transformation 
                        of the energy, transportation, industrial, 
                        agricultural, and building sectors of the 
                        United States;
                  ``(C) climate adaptation research that 
                focuses on response actions necessary to adapt 
                to climate change that may have occurred or may 
                occur under any future climate change scenario; 
                and
                  ``(D) research that focuses on resolving the 
                remaining scientific, technical, and economic 
                uncertainties associated with climate change to 
                the extent that those uncertainties bear on 
                strategies to achieve the long-term goal of 
                stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations.
          ``(9) Qualified individual.--
                  ``(A) In general.--The term `qualified 
                individual' means an individual who has 
                demonstrated expertise and leadership skills to 
                draw on other experts in diverse fields of 
                knowledge that are relevant to addressing the 
                climate change response challenge.
                  ``(B) Fields of knowledge.--The fields of 
                knowledge referred to in subparagraph (A) are--
                          ``(i) the science of primary and 
                        secondary climate change impacts;
                          ``(ii) energy and environmental 
                        economics;
                          ``(iii) technology transfer and 
                        diffusion;
                          ``(iv) the social dimensions of 
                        climate change;
                          ``(v) climate change adaptation 
                        strategies;
                          ``(vi) fossil, nuclear, and renewable 
                        energy technology;
                          ``(vii) energy efficiency and energy 
                        conservation;
                          ``(viii) energy systems integration;
                          ``(ix) engineered and terrestrial 
                        carbon sequestration;
                          ``(x) transportation, industrial, and 
                        building sector concerns;
                          ``(xi) regulatory and market-based 
                        mechanisms for addressing climate 
                        change;
                          ``(xii) risk and decision analysis;
                          ``(xiii) strategic planning; and
                          ``(xiv) the international 
                        implications of climate change response 
                        strategies.
          ``(10) Review board.--The term `Review Board' means 
        the United States Climate Change Response Strategy 
        Review Board established by section 1626.
          ``(11) Secretary.--The term `Secretary' means the 
        Secretary of Energy.
          ``(12) Stabilization of greenhouse gas 
        concentrations.--The term `stabilization of greenhouse 
        gas concentrations' means the stabilization of 
        greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a 
        level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic 
        interference with the climate system, as contemplated 
        by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 
        Change, done at New York on May 9, 1992.
          ``(13) Stragegy.--The term `Strategy' means the 
        United States Climate Change Response Strategy 
        developed under section 1622.
          ``(14) White house office.--The term `White House 
        Office' means the National Office of Climate Change 
        Response of the Executive Office of the President 
        established by section 1623(a).

``SEC. 1622. UNITED STATES CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE STRATEGY.

    ``(a) In General.--The Director of the White House Office 
shall develop the United States Climate Change Response 
Strategy, which shall--
          ``(1) have the long-term goal of stabilization of 
        greenhouse gas concentrations;
          ``(2) build on the 4 key elements;
          ``(3) be developed on the basis of an examination of 
        a broad range of emission reduction targets and 
        implementation dates (including those contemplated by 
        the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 
        Change, done at New York on May 9, 1992) that culminate 
        in the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations;
          ``(4) incorporate mitigation approaches to reduce, 
        avoid, and sequester greenhouse gas emissions;
          ``(5) include an evaluation of whether and how each 
        emission reduction target and implementation date 
        achieves the emission reductions in an economically and 
        environmentally sound manner;
          ``(6) be consistent with the goals of energy, 
        transportation, industrial, agricultural, forestry, 
        environmental, and other relevant policies of the 
        United States;
          ``(7) have a scope that considers the totality of 
        United States public, private, and public-private 
        sector actions that bear on the long-term goal;
          ``(8) be based on an evaluation of a wide range of 
        approaches for achieving the long-term goal, including 
        evaluation of--
                  ``(A) a variety of cost-effective Federal and 
                State policies, programs, standards, and 
                incentives;
                  ``(B) policies that integrate and promote 
                innovative, market-based solutions in the 
                United States and in foreign countries; and
                  ``(C) participation in other international 
                institutions, or in the support of 
                international activities, that are established 
                or conducted to facilitate stabilization of 
                greenhouse gas concentrations;
          ``(9) in the final recommendations of the Strategy, 
        emphasize response strategies that achieve the long-
        term goal and provide specific recommendations 
        concerning--
                  ``(A) measures determined to be appropriate 
                for short-term implementation, giving 
                preference to cost-effective and 
                technologically feasible measures that will--
                          ``(i) produce measurable net 
                        reductions in United States emissions 
                        that lead toward achievement of the 
                        long-term goal; and
                          ``(ii) minimize any adverse short-
                        term and long-term economic and social 
                        impacts on the United States;
                  ``(B) the development of technologies that 
                have the potential for long-term 
                implementation--
                          ``(i) giving preference to 
                        technologies that have the potential to 
                        reduce significantly the overall cost 
                        of stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                        concentrations; and
                          ``(ii) considering a full range of 
                        energy sources, energy conversion and 
                        use technologies, and efficiency 
                        options;
                  ``(C) such changes in institutional and 
                technology systems as are necessary to adapt to 
                climate change in the short term and the long 
                term;
                  ``(D) such review, modification, and 
                enhancement of the scientific, technical, and 
                economic research efforts of the United States, 
                and improvements to the data resulting from 
                research, as are appropriate to improve the 
                accuracy of predictions concerning climate 
                change and the economic and social costs and 
                opportunities relating to climate change; and
                  ``(E) changes that should be made to project 
                and grant evaluation criteria under other 
                Federal research and development programs so 
                that those criteria do not inhibit development 
                of climate-friendly technologies;
          ``(10) be developed in a manner that provides for 
        meaningful participation by, and consultation among, 
        Federal, State, tribal, and local government agencies, 
        nongovernmental organizations, academia, scientific 
        bodies, industry, the public, and other interested 
        parties in accordance with subsections 
        (b)(4)(C)(iv)(II) and (d)(3)(B)(iii) of section 1623;
          ``(11) address how the United States should engage 
        State, tribal, and local governments in developing and 
        carrying out a response to climate change;
          ``(12) promote, to the maximum extent practicable, 
        public awareness, outreach, and information-sharing to 
        further the understanding of the full range of climate 
        change-related issues;
          ``(13) include recommendations for legislative and 
        administrative actions necessary to implement the 
        Strategy;
          ``(14) serve as a framework for climate change 
        response actions by all Federal agencies;
          ``(15) recommend which Federal agencies are, or 
        should be, responsible for the various aspects of 
        implementation of the Strategy and any budgetary 
        implications;
          ``(16) address how the United States should engage 
        foreign governments in developing an international 
        response to climate change; and
          ``(17) be subject to review by an independent review 
        board in accordance with section 1626.
      ``(b) Submission to Congress.--Not later than 1 year 
after the date of enactment of this subtitle, the President 
shall submit to Congress the Strategy.
      ``(c) Updating.--Not later than 2 years after the date of 
submission of the Strategy to Congress under subsection (b), 
and at the end of each 2-year period thereafter, the President 
shall submit to Congress an updated version of the Strategy.
      ``(d) Progress Reports.--Not later than 1 year after the 
date of submission of the Strategy to Congress under subsection 
(b), and at the end of each 1-year period thereafter, the 
President shall submit to Congress a report that--
          ``(1) describes the progress on implementation of the 
        Strategy; and
          ``(2) provides recommendations for improvement of the 
        Strategy and the implementation of the Strategy.
      ``(e) Alignment With Energy, Transportation, Industrial, 
Agricultural, forestry, and Other Policies.--The President, the 
Director of the White House Office, the Secretary, and the 
other members of the Interagency Task Force shall work together 
to align the actions carried out under the Strategy and actions 
associated with the energy, transportation, industrial, 
agricultural, forestry, and other relevant policies of the 
United States so that the objectives of both the Strategy and 
the policies are met without compromising the climate change-
related goals of the Strategy or the goals of the policies.
      ``(f) National Laboratory Certification.--
          ``(1) In general.--The directors of the major 
        national laboratories of the Department specified in 
        paragraph (3) shall annually meet with the President 
        and individually and simultaneously certify whether the 
        energy technology research and development programs of 
        the United States collectively are technically and 
        financially on a trajectory that is consistent with--
                  ``(A) the directions and progress outlined in 
                the Strategy; and
                  ``(B) the long-term goal of stabilization of 
                greenhouse gas concentrations.
          ``(2) Effect of negative certification.--If the 
        certification described in paragraph (1) is in the 
        negative, the directors shall submit to the President a 
        report that--
                  ``(A) specifies the reasons why the 
                certification is in the negative; and
                  ``(B) describes corrective actions that must 
                be taken so that the certification can be made 
                in the affirmative.
          ``(3) Directors of major national laboratories 
        affiliated with science and energy programs.--The 
        directors of the national laboratories that shall 
        participate in the certification under this subsection 
        are the director of each of--
                  ``(A) the Argonne National Laboratory;
                  ``(B) the Lawrence Berkeley National 
                Laboratory;
                  ``(C) the National Energy Technology 
                Laboratory;
                  ``(D) the National Renewable Energy 
                Laboratory;
                  ``(E) the Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and
                  ``(F) the Pacific Northwest National 
                Laboratory.
          ``(4) Coordination.--The director of the National 
        Energy Technology Laboratory shall serve as coordinator 
        of the group of the directors of the national 
        laboratories specified in paragraph (3).

``SEC. 1623. NATIONAL OFFICE OF CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE OF THE 
                    EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT.

      ``(a) Establishment.--
          ``(1) In general.--There is established, within the 
        Executive Office of the President, the National Office 
        of Climate Change Response.
          ``(2) Focus.--The White House Office shall have the 
        focus of achieving the long-term goal of stabilization 
        of greenhouse gas concentrations while minimizing 
        adverse short-term and long-term economic and social 
        impacts.
          ``(3) Duties.--Consistent with paragraph (2), the 
        White House Office shall--
                  ``(A) establish policies, objectives, and 
                priorities for the Strategy;
                  ``(B) in accordance with subsection (d), 
                establish the Interagency Task Force to serve 
                as the primary mechanism through which the 
                heads of Federal agencies shall assist the 
                Director of the White House Office in 
                developing and implementing the Strategy;
                  ``(C) to the maximum extent practicable, 
                ensure that the Strategy is based on objective, 
                quantitative analysis, drawing on the 
                analytical capabilities of Federal and State 
                agencies, especially the Center;
                  ``(D) advise the President concerning 
                necessary changes in organization, management, 
                budgeting, and personnel allocation of Federal 
                agencies involved in climate change response 
                activities; and
                  ``(E) notify a Federal agency if the policies 
                and discretionary programs of the agency are 
                not well aligned with, or are not contributing 
                effectively to, the long-term goal of 
                stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations.
      ``(b) Director of the White House Office.--
          ``(1) In general.--The White House Office shall be 
        headed by a Director, who shall report directly to the 
        President.
          ``(2) Appointment.--The Director of the White House 
        Office shall be a qualified individual appointed by the 
        President, by and with the advice and consent of the 
        Senate.
          ``(3) Term; vacancies.--
                    ``(A) ``Term.--The Director of the White 
                House Office shall be appointed for a term of 4 
                years.
                    ``(B) Vacancies.--A vacancy in the position 
                of Director of the White House Office shall be 
                filled in the same manner as the original 
                appointment was made.
          ``(4) Duties of the director of the white house 
        office.--
                    ``(A) Strategy.--In accordance with section 
                1622, the Director of the White House Office 
                shall coordinate the development and updating 
                of the Strategy.
                    ``(B) Interagency task force.--The Director 
                of the White House Office shall serve as 
                Chairperson of the Interagency Task Force.
                  ``(C) Advisory duties.--
                        ``  (i) Climate, energy, 
                        transportation, industrial, 
                        agricultural, building, forestry, and 
                        other programs.--The Director of the 
                        White House Office, using an integrated 
                        perspective considering the totality of 
                        actions in the United States, shall 
                        advise the President and the heads of 
                        Federal agencies on--
                                  ``(I) the extent to which 
                                United States energy, 
                                transportation, industrial, 
                                agricultural, forestry, 
                                building, and other relevant 
                                programs are capable of 
                                producing progress on the long-
                                term goal of stabilization of 
                                greenhouse gas concentrations; 
                                and
                                  ``(II) the extent to which 
                                proposed or newly created 
                                energy, transportation, 
                                industrial, agricultural, 
                                forestry, building, and other 
                                relevant programs positively or 
                                negatively affect the ability 
                                of the United States to achieve 
                                the long-term goal of 
                                stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                                concentrations.
                          ``(ii) Tax, trade, and foreign 
                        policies.--The Director of the White 
                        House Office, using an integrated 
                        perspective considering the totality of 
                        actions in the United States, shall 
                        advise the President and the heads of 
                        Federal agencies on--
                                  ``(I) the extent to which the 
                                United States tax policy, trade 
                                policy, and foreign policy are 
                                capable of producing progress 
                                on the long-term goal of 
                                stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                                concentrations; and
                                  ``(II) the extent to which 
                                proposed or newly created tax 
                                policy, trade policy, and 
                                foreign policy positively or 
                                negatively affect the ability 
                                of the United States to achieve 
                                the long-term goal of 
                                stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                                concentrations.
                          ``(iii) International treaties.--The 
                        Secretary of State, acting in 
                        conjunction with the Interagency Task 
                        Force and using the analytical tools 
                        available to the White House Office, 
                        shall provide to the Director of the 
                        White House Office an opinion that--
                                  ``(I) specifies the economic 
                                and environmental costs and 
                                benefits of any proposed 
                                international treaties or 
                                components of treaties that 
                                have an influence on greenhouse 
                                gas management; and
                                  ``(II) assesses the extent to 
                                which the treaties advance the 
                                long-term goal of stabilization 
                                of greenhouse gas 
                                concentrations, while 
                                minimizing adverse short-term 
                                and long-term economic and 
                                social impacts and considering 
                                other impacts.
                          ``(iv) Consultation.--
                                  ``(I) With members of 
                                interagency task force.--To the 
                                extent practicable and 
                                appropriate, the Director of 
                                the White House Office shall 
                                consult with all members of the 
                                Interagency Task Force and 
                                other interested parties before 
                                providing advice to the 
                                President.
                                  ``(II) With other interested 
                                parties.--The Director of the 
                                White House Office shall 
                                establish a process for 
                                obtaining the meaningful 
                                participation of Federal, 
                                State, tribal, and local 
                                government agencies, 
                                nongovernmental organizations, 
                                academia, scientific bodies, 
                                industry, the public, and other 
                                interested parties in the 
                                formulation of advice to be 
                                provided to the President.
                  ``(D) Public education, awareness, outreach, 
                and information-sharing.--The Director of the 
                White House Office, to the maximum extent 
                practicable, shall promote public awareness, 
                outreach, and information-sharing to further 
                the understanding of the full range of climate 
                change-related issues.
          ``(5) Annual reports.--The Director of the White 
        House Office, in consultation with the Interagency Task 
        Force and other interested parties, shall prepare an 
        annual report for submission by the President to 
        Congress that--
                  ``(A) assesses progress in implementation of 
                the Strategy;
                  ``(B) assesses progress, in the United States 
                and in foreign countries, toward the long-term 
                goal of stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                concentrations;
                  ``(C) assesses progress toward meeting 
                climate change-related international 
                obligations;
                  ``(D) makes recommendations for actions by 
                the Federal Government designed to close any 
                gap between progress-to-date and the measures 
                that are necessary to achieve the long-term 
                goal of stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                concentrations; and
                  ``(E) addresses the totality of actions in 
                the United States that relate to the 4 key 
                elements.
          (6) Analysis.--During development of the Strategy, 
        preparation of the annual reports submitted under 
        paragraph (5), and provision of advice to the President 
        and the heads of Federal agencies, the Director of the 
        White House Office shall place significant emphasis on 
        the use of objective, quantitative analysis, taking 
        into consideration any uncertainties associated with 
        the analysis.
    ``(c) Staff.--
          ``(1) In general.--The Director of the White House 
        Office shall employ a professional staff of not more 
        than 25 individuals to carry out the duties of the 
        White House Office.
          ``(2) Intergovernmental personnel and fellowships.--
        The Director of the White House Office may use the 
        authority provided by the Intergovernmental Personnel 
        Act of 1970 (42 U.S.C. 4701 et seq.) and subchapter VI 
        of chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code, and 
        fellowships, to obtain staff from academia, scientific 
        bodies, private industry, nongovernmental 
        organizations, other Department programs, other Federal 
        agencies, and national laboratories, for appointments 
        of a limited term.
    ``(d) Interagency Task Force.--
          ``(1) In general.--The Director of the White House 
        Office shall establish the United States Climate Change 
        Response Interagency Task Force.
        ``(2) Composition.--The Interagency Task Force shall be 
        composed of--
                  ``(A) the Director of the White House Office, 
                who shall serve as Chairperson;
                  ``(B) the Secretary of State;
                  ``(C) the Secretary;
                  ``(D) the Secretary of Commerce;
                  ``(E) the Secretary of the Treasury;
                  ``(F) the Secretary of Transportation;
                  ``(G) the Secretary of Agriculture;
                  ``(H) the Administrator of the Environmental 
                Protection Agency;
                  ``(I) the Administrator of the Agency for 
                International Development;
                  ``(J) the United States Trade Representative;
                  ``(K) the National Security Advisor;
                  ``(L) the Director of the National Economic 
                Council;
                  ``(M) the Chairman of the Council on 
                Environmental Quality;
                  ``(N) the Director of the Office of Science 
                and Technology Policy; 
                  ``(O) the Chairperson of the Subcommittee on 
                Global Change Research (which performs the 
                functions of the Committee on Earth and 
                Environmental Sciences established by section 
                102 of the Global Change Research Act of 1990 
                (15 U.S.C. 2932)); and
                  ``(P) the heads of such other Federal 
                agencies as the Chairperson determines should 
                be members of the Interagency Task Force.
          ``(3) Strategy.--
                  ``(A) In general.--The Interagency Task Force 
                shall serve as the primary forum through which 
                the Federal agencies represented on the 
                Interagency Task Force jointly--
                          ``(i) assist the Director of the 
                        White House Office in developing and 
                        updating the Strategy; and
                          ``(ii) assist the Director of the 
                        White House Office in preparing annual 
                        reports under subsection (b)(5).
                  ``(B) Required elements.--In carrying out 
                subparagraph (A), the Interagency Task Force 
                shall--
                          ``(i) take into account the long-term 
                        goal and other requirements of the 
                        Strategy specified in section 1622(a);
                          ``(ii) give full consideration to the 
                        facts and opinions presented by the 
                        members of the Interagency Task Force;
                          ``(iii) consult with State, tribal, 
                        and local government agencies, 
                        nongovernmental organizations, 
                        academia, scientific bodies, industry, 
                        the public, and other interested 
                        parties; and
                          ``(iv) build consensus around a 
                        Strategy that is based on strong 
                        scientific, technical, and economic 
                        analyses.
          ``(4) Working groups.--The Chairperson of the 
        Interagency Task Force may establish such topical 
        working groups as are necessary to carry out the duties 
        of the Interagency Task Force.
    ``(e) Provision of Support Staff.--In accordance with 
procedures established by the Chairperson of the Interagency 
Task Force, the Federal agencies represented on the Interagency 
Task Force shall provide staff from the agencies to support 
information, data collection, and analyses required by the 
Interagency Task Force.
    ``(f) Hearings.--On request of the Chairperson, the 
Interagency Task Force may hold such hearings, meet and act at 
such times and places, take such testimony, and receive such 
evidence as the Interagency Task Force considers to be 
appropriate.

``SEC. 1624. TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION PROGRAM IMPLEMENTED THROUGH THE 
                    OFFICE OF CLIMATE CHANGE TECHNOLOGY OF THE 
                    DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND THE CENTER FOR STRATEGIC 
                    CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE.

    ``(a) Establishment of Office of Climate Change Technology 
of the Department of Energy.--
          ``(1) In general.--There is established, within the 
        Department, the Office of Climate Change Technology.
          ``(2) Duties.--The Department Office shall--
                  ``(A) manage an energy technology research 
                and development program that directly supports 
                the Strategy by--
                          ``(i) focusing on high-risk, bold, 
                        breakthrough technologies that--
                                  ``(I) are critical to the 
                                long-term stabilization of 
                                greenhouse gas concentrations;
                                  ``(II) are not significantly 
                                addressed by other Federal 
                                programs; and
                                  ``(III) move technology 
                                substantially beyond the state 
                                of usual innovation;
                          ``(ii) forging fundamentally new 
                        research and development partnerships 
                        among various Departments, other 
                        Federal, and State programs, 
                        particularly between basic science and 
                        energy technology programs, in cases in 
                        which such partnerships have 
                        significant potential to affect the 
                        ability of the United States to achieve 
                        stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                        concentrations at the lowest possible 
                        cost;
                          ``(iii) forging international 
                        research and development partnerships 
                        that are in the interests of the United 
                        States and make progress on 
                        stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                        concentrations;
                          ``(iv) making available, through 
                        monitoring, experimentation, and 
                        analysis, data that are essential to 
                        proving the technical and economic 
                        viability of technology central to 
                        addressing climate change; and
                          ``(v) transitioning research and 
                        development programs to other program 
                        offices of the Department once such a 
                        research and development program 
                        crosses the threshold of high-risk 
                        research and moves into the realm of 
                        more conventional technology 
                        development;
                  ``(B) in accordance with subsection 
                (b)(5)(C), prepare a 10-year program plan for 
                the activities of the Department Office and 
                update the plan biennially;
                  ``(C) prepare annual reports in accordance 
                with subsection (b)(6);
                  ``(D) identify the total contribution of all 
                Department programs to climate change response;
                  ``(E) provide substantial analytical support 
                to the White House Office, particularly support 
                in the development of the Strategy and 
                associated progress reporting; and
                  ``(F) advise the Secretary on climate change-
                related issues, including necessary changes in 
                Department organization, management, budgeting, 
                and personnel allocation in the programs 
                involved in climate change response-related 
                activities.
    ``(b) Director of the Department Office.--
          ``(1) In general.--The Department Office shall be 
        headed by a Director, who shall report directly to the 
        Secretary.
          ``(2) Appointment.--The Director of the Department 
        Office shall be an employee of the Federal Government 
        who is a qualified individual appointed by the 
        President.
          ``(3) Term.--The Director of the Department Office 
        shall be appointed for a term of 4 years.
          ``(4) Vacancies.--A vacancy in the position of the 
        Director of the Department Office shall be filled in 
        the same manner as the original appointment was made.
          ``(5) Duties of the director of the department 
        office.--
                  ``(A) Strategy.--The Director of the 
                Department Office shall support development of 
                the Strategy through the provision of staff and 
                analytical support.
                  ``(B) Interagency task force.--Through active 
                participation in the Interagency Task Force, 
                the Director of the Department Office shall--
                          ``(i) based on the analytical 
                        capabilities of the Department Office 
                        and the Center, share analyses of 
                        alternative climate change response 
                        strategies with other members of the 
                        Interagency Task Force to assist all 
                        members in understanding--
                                  ``(I) the scale of the 
                                climate change response 
                                challenge; and
                                  ``(II) how the actions of the 
                                Federal agencies of the members 
                                positively or negatively 
                                contribute to climate change 
                                solutions; and
                          ``(ii) determine how the energy 
                        technology research and development 
                        program described in subsection 
                        (a)(2)(A) can be designed for maximum 
                        impact on the long-term goal of 
                        stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                        concentrations.
                  ``(C) 10-year program plan.--
                          ``(i) In general.--Not later than 1 
                        year after the date of enactment of 
                        this subtitle, the Director of the 
                        Department Office shall prepare a 10-
                        year program plan.
                          ``(ii) Required elements.--The plan 
                        shall--
                                  ``(I) consider all elements 
                                of the Strategy that relate to 
                                technology research and 
                                development;
                                  ``(II) become an integral 
                                component of the Strategy;
                                  ``(III) focus the activities 
                                of the Department Office on 
                                gaps identified by the 
                                Strategy;
                                  ``(IV) emphasize the funding 
                                of activities that meet the 
                                goals described in clauses (i) 
                                through (iv) of subsection 
                                (a)(2)(A);
                                  ``(V) identify creative and 
                                innovative approaches for 
                                building partnerships and 
                                managing research and 
                                development that have the 
                                potential to result in 
                                significant advances of 
                                technologies and other 
                                innovative actions; and
                                  ``(VI) place a high level of 
                                emphasis on bold, breakthrough 
                                research and development 
                                programs that can--
                                          ``(aa) be created 
                                        with the involvement of 
                                        1 or more Federal 
                                        research and 
                                        development programs; 
                                        and
                                          ``(bb) upon reaching 
                                        a sufficient level of 
                                        technological maturity, 
                                        be transitioned to 
                                        other program offices 
                                        of the Department 
                                        without loss of the 
                                        creative management 
                                        approaches and 
                                        partnerships of the 
                                        innovative research and 
                                        development programs.
                          ``(iii) Submission of plan.--The 
                        Secretary shall submit the 10-year 
                        program plan to Congress and the 
                        Director of the White House Office.
                          ``(iv) Updating.--
                                  ``(I) In general.--The 
                                Director of the Department 
                                Office shall update the 10-year 
                                program plan biennially.
                                  ``(II) Submission.--The 
                                Secretary shall submit each 
                                updated 10-year program plan to 
                                Congress and the Director of 
                                the White House Office.
                  ``(D) Center.--
                          ``(i) Operating model.--The Director 
                        of the Department Office shall 
                        establish an operating model for the 
                        Center.
                          ``(ii) Delegation of department 
                        office functions.--The Director of the 
                        Department Office may choose to 
                        delegate selected program management 
                        and research and development functions 
                        of the Department Office to the Center.
                          ``(iii) Focus.--
                                  ``(I) In general.--Funds for 
                                the Center should be used to 
                                build a Center with focused 
                                capability that has a limited 
                                number of focused offsite 
                                locations.
                                  ``(II) Involvement of 
                                organizations.--Notwithstanding 
                                subclause (I), the Director of 
                                the Department Office 
                                may involve any number of 
                                organizations in the operation 
                                of the Center.
                          ``(iv) Tools, data, and 
                        capabilities.--The Director of the 
                        Department Office shall foster the 
                        development of tools, data, and 
                        capabilities at the Center to ensure 
                        that--
                                  ``(I) the United States has a 
                                robust capability for 
                                evaluating alternative climate 
                                change response scenarios; and
                                  ``(II) the Center provides 
                                long-term analytical continuity 
                                during the terms of service of 
                                successive Presidents.
                  ``(E) Advisory duties.--The Director of the 
                Department Office shall advise the Secretary on 
                all aspects of climate change response.
          ``(6) Annual reports.--The Director of the Department 
        Office shall prepare an annual report for submission by 
        the Secretary to Congress and the White House Office 
        that--
                  ``(A) assesses progress toward meeting the 
                goals of the energy technology research and 
                development program described in subsection 
                (a)(2)(A);
                  ``(B) assesses the activities of the Center;
                  ``(C) assesses the contributions of all 
                energy technology research and development 
                programs of the Department (including science 
                programs) to the long-term goal and other 
                requirements of the Strategy specified in 
                section 1622(a); and
                  ``(D) makes recommendations for actions by 
                the Department and other Federal agencies to 
                address the components of technology 
                development that are necessary to support the 
                Strategy.
          ``(7) Analysis.--During development of the Strategy, 
        the 10-year program plan submitted under paragraph 
        (5)(C), annual reports submitted under paragraph (6), 
        and advice to the Secretary, the Director of the 
        Department Office shall place significant emphasis on 
        the use of objective, quantitative analysis, taking 
        into consideration any associated uncertainties.
    ``(c) Staff.--The Director of the Department Office shall 
employ a professional staff of not more than 25 individuals to 
carry out the duties of the Department Office.
    ``(d) Intergovernmental Personnel and Fellowships.--The 
Department Office may use the authority provided by the 
Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970 (42 U.S.C. 4701 et 
seq.) and subchapter VI of chapter 33 of title 5, United States 
Code, and fellowships, to obtain staff from academia, 
scientific bodies, private industry, nongovernmental 
organizations, other Department programs, other Federal 
agencies, and national laboratories, for appointments of a 
limited term.
    ``(e) Center for Strategic Climate Change Response.--
          ``(1) In general.--
                  ``(A) Establishment.--There is established 
                the Center for Strategic Climate Change 
                Response, which shall report to the Director of 
                the Department Office.
                  ``(B) Locations.--The Center shall maintain 1 
                headquarters location and such additional 
                temporary or permanent locations as are 
                necessary to carry out the duties of the 
                Center.
                  ``(C) Center director.--The Center shall be 
                headed by a Director, who shall be selected by 
                the Director of the Department Office.
          ``(2) Duties.--
                  ``(A) In general.--
                          ``(i) Goal.--The Center shall foster 
                        the development and application of 
                        advanced computational tools, data, and 
                        capabilities that support integrated 
                        assessment of alternative climate 
                        change response scenarios and 
                        implementation of the Strategy.
                          ``(ii) Participation and support.--
                        The Center may include participation 
                        of, and be supported by, each other 
                        Federal agency that has a direct or 
                        indirect role in the development, 
                        commercialization, or transfer of 
                        energy, transportation, industrial, 
                        agricultural, forestry, or other 
                        climate change-related technology.
                  ``(B) Programs.--
                          ``(i) In general.--The Center shall--
                                  ``(I) develop and maintain 
                                core analytical competencies 
                                and complex, integrated 
                                computational modeling 
                                capabilities that are necessary 
                                to support the design and 
                                implementation of the Strategy;
                                  ``(II) track United States 
                                and international progress 
                                toward the long-term goal of 
                                stabilization of greenhouse gas 
                                concentrations; and
                          ``(III) in support of the Department 
                        Office, support the management and 
                        implementation of research and 
                        development programs.
                          ``(ii) International carbon dioxide 
                        sequestration monitoring and data 
                        program.--In consultation with Federal, 
                        State, academic, scientific, private 
                        sector, nongovernmental, tribal, and 
                        international carbon capture and 
                        sequestration technology programs, the 
                        Center shall design and carry out an 
                        international carbon dioxide 
                        sequestration monitoring and data 
                        program to collect, analyze, and make 
                        available the technical and economic 
                        data to ascertain--
                                  ``(I) whether engineered 
                                sequestration and terrestrial 
                                sequestration will be 
                                acceptable technologies from 
                                regulatory, economic, and 
                                international perspectives;
                                  ``(II) whether carbon dioxide 
                                sequestered in geological 
                                formations or ocean systems is 
                                stable and has inconsequential 
                                leakage rates on a geologic 
                                time-scale; and
                                  ``(III) the extent to which 
                                forest, agricultural, and other 
                                terrestrial systems are 
                                suitable carbon sinks.
                  ``(C) Areas of expertise.--
                          ``(i) In general.--The Center shall 
                        develop and maintain expertise in 
                        integrated assessment, modeling, and 
                        related capabilities necessary--
                                  ``(I) to understand the 
                                relationship between natural, 
                                agricultural, industrial, 
                                energy, and economic systems;
                                  ``(II) to design effective 
                                research and development 
                                programs; and
                                  ``(III) to develop and 
                                implement the Strategy.
                          ``(ii) Technology transfer and 
                        diffusion.--The expertise described in 
                        clause (i) shall include knowledge of 
                        technology transfer and technology 
                        diffusion in United States markets and 
                        foreign markets.
                  ``(D) Dissemination of information.--The 
                Center shall ensure, to the maximum extent 
                practicable, that technical and scientific 
                knowledge relating to greenhouse gas emission 
                reduction, avoidance, and sequestration is 
                broadly disseminated through publications, 
                fellowships, and training programs.
                  ``(E) Assessments.--In a manner consistent 
                with the Strategy, the Center shall conduct 
                assessments of deployment of climate-friendly 
                technology.
                  ``(F) Use of private sector funding.--
                          ``(i) In general.--The Center shall 
                        create an operating model that allows 
                        for collaboration, division of effort, 
                        and cost sharing with industry on 
                        individual climate change response 
                        projects.
                          ``(ii) Requirements.--Although cost 
                        sharing in some cases may be 
                        appropriate, the Center shall focus on 
                        long-term high-risk research and 
                        development and should not make 
                        industrial partnerships or cost sharing 
                        a requirement, if such a requirement 
                        would bias the activities of the Center 
                        toward incremental innovations.
                          ``(iii) Reevaluation on transition.--
                        At such time as any bold, breakthrough 
                        research and development program 
                        reaches a sufficient level of 
                        technological maturity such that the 
                        program is transitioned to a program 
                        office of the Department other than the 
                        Department Office, the cost-sharing 
                        requirements and criteria applicable to 
                        the program should be reevaluated.
                          ``(iv) Publication in federal 
                        register.--Each cost-sharing agreement 
                        entered into under this subparagraph 
                        shall be published in the Federal 
                        Register.
                  ``(G) Intergovernmental personnel and 
                fellowships.--The Director of the Center may 
                use the authority provided by the 
                Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970 (42 
                U.S.C. 4701 et seq.) and subchapter VI of 
                chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code, and 
                fellowships, to obtain staff from academia, 
                scientific bodies, private industry, 
                nongovernmental organizations, other Department 
                programs, other Federal agencies, and national 
                laboratories, for appointments of a limited 
                term.

``SEC. 1625. ADDITIONAL OFFICES AND ACTIVITIES.

    ``The Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of 
Transportation, the Administrator of the Environmental 
Protection Agency, and the heads of other Federal agencies may 
establish such offices and carry out such activities, in 
addition to those established or authorized by this subtitle, 
as are necessary to carry out this subtitle.

``SEC. 1626. UNITED STATES CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE STRATEGY REVIEW 
                    BOARD.

    ``(a) Establishment.--There is established as an 
independent establishment within the executive branch the 
United States Climate Change Response Strategy Review Board.
    ``(b) Membership.--
          ``(1) Composition.--The Review Board shall consist of 
        11 members who shall be appointed, not later than 90 
        days after the date of enactment of this subtitle, by 
        the President by and with the advice and consent of the 
        Senate, from among qualified individuals nominated by 
        the National Academy of Sciences in accordance with 
        paragraph (2).
          ``(2) Nominations.-- Not later than 60 days after the 
        date of enactment of this subtitle, after taking into 
        strong consideration the guidance and recommendations 
        of a broad range of scientific and technical societies 
        that have the capability of recommending qualified 
        individuals, the National Academy of Sciences shall 
        nominate for appointment to the Review Board not fewer 
        than 22 individuals who--
                  ``(A) are--
                          ``(i) qualified individuals; or
                          ``(ii) experts in a field of 
                        knowledge specified in section 
                        1621(9)(B); and
                  ``(B) as a group represent broad, balanced 
                expertise.
          ``(3) Prohibition on federal government employment.--
        A member of the Review Board shall not be an employee 
        of the Federal Government.
          ``(4) Terms; Vacancies.--
                  ``(A) Terms.--
                          ``(i) In general.--Subject to clause 
                        (ii), each member of the Review Board 
                        shall be appointed for a term of 4 
                        years.
                          ``(ii) Initial Terms.--
                                  ``(I) Commencement date.--The 
                                term of each member initially 
                                appointed to the Review Board 
                                shall commence 120 days after 
                                the date of enactment of this 
                                subtitle.
                                  ``(II) Termination date.--Of 
                                the 11 members initially 
                                appointed to the Review Board, 
                                5 members shall be appointed 
                                for a term of 2 years and 6 
                                members shall be appointed for 
                                a term of 4 years, to be 
                                designated by the President at 
                                the time of appointment.
                  ``(B) Vacancies.--
                          ``(i) In general.--A vacancy on the 
                        Review Board shall be filled in the 
                        manner described in this subparagraph.
                          ``(ii) Nominations by the national 
                        academy of sciences.--Not later than 60 
                        days after the date on which a vacancy 
                        commences, the National Academy of 
                        Sciences shall--
                                  ``(I) after taking into 
                                strong consideration the 
                                guidance and recommendations of 
                                a broad range of scientific and 
                                technical societies that have 
                                the capability of recommending 
                                qualified individuals, 
                                nominate, from among qualified 
                                individuals, not fewer than 2 
                                individuals to fill the 
                                vacancy; and
                                  ``(II) submit the names of 
                                the nominees to the President.
                          ``(iii) Selection.--Not later than 30 
                        days after the date on which the 
                        nominations under clause (ii) are 
                        submitted to the President, the 
                        President shall select from among the 
                        nominees an individual to fill the 
                        vacancy.
                          ``(iv) Senate confirmation.--An 
                        individual appointed to fill a vacancy 
                        on the Review Board shall be appointed 
                        by and with the advice and consent of 
                        the Senate.
          ``(5) Disclosure of potential conflicts of 
        interest.--
                  ``(A) Employment of nominess.--If a nominee 
                to the Review Board is employed by an entity 
                that receives any funding from the Department 
                or any other Federal agency, the fact of the 
                employment shall be--
                          ``(i) disclosed to the President by 
                        the National Academy of Sciences at the 
                        time of the nomination; and
                          ``(ii) publicly disclosed by the 
                        nominee as part of the Senate 
                        confirmation process of the nominee.
                  ``(B) Employment of members.--If, during the 
                period of service of a member on the Review 
                Board, the member is employed by an entity that 
                receives any funding from the Department or any 
                other Federal agency, the fact of the 
                employment shall be publicly disclosed by the 
                Chairperson of the Review Board on a semiannual 
                basis.
                  ``(C) Financial benefit to members.--If, 
                during the period of service of a member on the 
                Review Board, the Review Board makes any 
                written recommendation that may financially 
                benefit a member or an entity that employs the 
                member, the fact of that financial benefit 
                shall be publicly disclosed by the Chairperson 
                of the Review Board at the time of the recommendation.
                  ``(D) Applicability of ethics in government 
                act of 1978.--A member of the Review Board 
                shall be deemed to be an individual subject to 
                the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. 
                App.).
          ``(6) Chairperson; vice chairperson.--The members of 
        the Review Board shall select a Chairperson and a Vice 
        Chairperson of the Review Board from among the members 
        of the Review Board.
    ``(c) Duties.--
          ``(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the 
        date of submission of the initial Strategy under 
        section 1622(b), each updated version of the Strategy 
        under section 1622(c), each progress report under 
        section 1622(d), and each national laboratory 
        certification under section 1622(f), the Review Board 
        shall submit to the President, Congress, and the heads 
        of Federal agencies as appropriate a report assessing 
        the adequacy of the Strategy, report, or certification.
          ``(2) Comments.--In reviewing the Strategy, or a 
        report or certification, under paragraph (1), the 
        Review Board shall consider and comment on--
                  ``(A) the adequacy of effort and the 
                appropriateness of focus of the totality of all 
                public, private, and public-private sector 
                actions of the United States with respect to 
                the 4 key elements;
                  ``(B) the extent to which actions of the 
                United States, with respect to climate change, 
                complement or leverage international research 
                and other efforts designed to manage global 
                emissions of greenhouse gases, to further the 
                long-term goal of stabilization of greenhouse 
                gas concentrations;
                  ``(C) the funding implications of any 
                recommendations made by the Review Board; and
                  ``(D)(i) the effectiveness with which each 
                Federal agency is carrying out the 
                responsibilities of the Federal agency with 
                respect to the short-term and long- term 
                greenhouse gas management goals; and
                  ``(ii) the adequacy of the budget of each 
                such Federal agency to carry out those 
                responsibilities.
          ``(3) Additional recommendations.--
                  ``(A) In general.--Subject to subparagraph 
                (B), the Review Board, at the request of the 
                President or Congress, may provide 
                recommendations on additional climate change-
                related topics.
                  ``(B) Secondary duty.--The provision of 
                recommendations under subparagraph (A) shall be 
                a secondary duty to the primary duty of the 
                Review Board of providing independent review of 
                the Strategy and the reports and certifications 
                under paragraphs (1) and (2).
    ``(d) Powers.--
          ``(1) Hearings.--
                  ``(A) In general.--On request of the 
                Chairperson or a majority of the members of the 
                Review Board, the Review Board may hold such 
                hearings, meet and act at such times and 
                places, take such testimony, and receive such 
                evidence as the Review Board considers to be 
                appropriate.
                  ``(B) Administration of oaths.--Any member of 
                the Review Board may administer an oath or 
                affirmation to any witness that appears before 
                the Review Board.
          ``(2) Production of documents.--
                  ``(A) In general.--On request of the 
                Chairperson or a majority of the members of the 
                Review Board, and subject to applicable law, 
                the Secretary or head of a Federal agency 
                represented on the Interagency Task Force, or a 
                contractor of such an agency, shall provide the 
                Review Board with such records, files, papers, 
                data, and information as are necessary to 
                respond to any inquiry of the Review Board 
                under this subtitle.
                  ``(B) Inclusion of work in progress.--Subject 
                to applicable law, information obtainable under 
                subparagraph (A)--
                          ``(i) shall not be limited to final 
                        work products; but
                          ``(ii) shall include draft work 
                        products and documentation of work in 
                        progress.
          ``(3) Postal services.--The Review Board may use the 
        United States mails in the same manner and under the 
        same conditions as other agencies of the Federal 
        Government.
    ``(e) Compensation of Members.--A member of the Review 
Board shall be compensated at a rate equal to the daily 
equivalent of the annual rate of basic pay prescribed for level 
IV of the Executive Schedule under section 5315 of title 5, 
United States Code, for each day (including travel time) during 
which the member is engaged in the performance of the duties of 
the Review Board.
    ``(f) Travel Expenses.-- A member of the Review Board shall 
be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of 
subsistence, at rates authorized for an employee of an 
agencyunder subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code, 
while away from the home or regular place of business of the member in 
the performance of the duties of the Review Board.
    ``(g) Staff.--
          ``(1) In general.--The Chairperson of the Review 
        Board may, without regard to the civil service laws 
        (including regulations), appoint and terminate an 
        executive director and such other additional personnel 
        as are necessary to enable the Review Board to perform 
        the duties of the Review Board.
          ``(2) Confirmation of executive director.--The 
        employment of an executive director shall be subject to 
        confirmation by the Review Board.
          ``(3) Compensation.--
                  ``(A) In general.--Except as provided in 
                subparagraph (B), the Chairperson of the Review 
                Board may fix the compensation of the executive 
                director and other personnel without regard to 
                the provisions of chapter 51 and subchapter III 
                of chapter 53 of title 5, United States Code, 
                relating to classification of positions and 
                General Schedule pay rates.
                  ``(B) Maximum rate of pay.--The rate of pay 
                for the executive director and other personnel 
                shall not exceed the rate payable for level V 
                of the Executive Schedule under section 5316 of 
                title 5, United States Code.
    ``(h) Procurement of Temporary and Intermittent Services.--
The Chairperson of the Review Board may procure temporary and 
intermittent services in accordance with section 3109(b) of 
title 5, United States Code, at rates for individuals that do 
not exceed the daily equivalent of the annual rate of basic pay 
prescribed for level V of the Executive Schedule under section 
5316 of that title.

``SEC. 1627. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    ``(a) White House Office.--
          ``(1) Use of available appropriations.--From funds 
        made available to Federal agencies for the fiscal year 
        in which this subtitle is enacted, the President shall 
        provide such sums as are necessary to carry out the 
        duties of the White House Office under this subtitle 
        until the date on which funds are made available under 
        paragraph (2).
          ``(2) Authorization of appropriations.--There is 
        authorized to be appropriated to the White House Office 
        to carry out the duties of the White House Office under 
        this subtitle $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2002 
        through 2011, to remain available through September 30, 
        2011.
    ``(b) Department Office.--
          ``(1) Use of available appropriations.--From funds 
        made available to Federal agencies for the fiscal year 
        in which this subtitle is enacted, the President shall 
        provide such sums as are necessary to carry out the 
        duties of the Department Office under this subtitle 
        until the date on which funds are made available under 
        paragraph (2).
          ``(2) Authorization of appropriations.--There is 
        authorized to be appropriated to the Department Office 
        to carry out the duties of the Department Office under 
        this subtitle $4,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal 
        years 2002 through 2011, to remain available through 
        September 30, 2011.
    ``(c) Center.--
          ``(1) Use of available appropriations.--From funds 
        made available to Federal agencies for the fiscal year 
        in which this subtitle is enacted, the President shall 
        provide such sums as are necessary to carry out the 
        duties of the Center under this subtitle until the date 
        on which funds are made available under paragraph (2).
          ``(2) Authorization of appropriations.--There is 
        authorized to be appropriated to the Center to carry 
        out the duties of the Center under this subtitle 
        $75,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2002 through 2011, 
        to remain available through September 30, 2011.
    ``(d) Review of Board.--
          ``(1) Use of available appropriations.--From funds 
        made available to Federal agencies for the fiscal year 
        in which this subtitle is enacted, the President shall 
        provide such sums as are necessary to carry out the 
        duties of the Review Board under this subtitle until 
        the date on which funds are made available under 
        paragraph (2).
          ``(2) Authorization of appropriations.--There is 
        authorized to be appropriated to the Review Board to 
        carry out the duties of the Review Board under this 
        subtitle $3,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2002 
        through 2011, to remain available until expended.
    ``(e) Additional Amounts.--Amounts authorized to be 
appropriated under this section shall be in addition to--
          ``(1) amounts made available to carry out the United 
        States Global Change Research Program under the Global 
        Change Research Act of 1990 (15 U.S.C. 2921 et seq.); 
        and
          ``(2) amounts made available under other provisions 
        of law for energy research and development.'.

Sec. 13382. Least-cost energy strategy

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