§ 22-23-1 — Findings and purposes

The West Virginia Legislature hereby finds that:

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

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

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

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

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

(f) On July 25, 1997, the United States Senate adopted Senate Resolution Number Ninety-eight by a vote of ninety-five to zero, expressing the sentiment of the Senate that "the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol to other agreement regarding, the Framework Convention on Climate Change... which would require the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, and which would mandate new commitments to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions for the Developed Country Parties, unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates specific scheduled commitments within the same compliance period to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties";

(g) The Kyoto Protocol fails to meet the tests established for acceptance of new climate change commitments by President Clinton and by United States Senate Resolution Number ninety-eight;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Legislative History

1998 Reg. Sess., HB4228