Jonathan Lash's Statement To the US House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

Jonathan Lash, President of the World Resources Institute and founder of the US Climate Action Partnership (US CAP), provided a statement to the US House Select Committee on Global Warming on October 10, 2007. He advocated for a federal, economy-wide cap-and-trade program and a long-term roadmap of emissions reductions to provide market certainty for private sector investment in low-carbon technologies.

• The US Climate Action Partnership (US CAP), consisting of 33 companies and non-profit organizations with market capitalization exceeding US $2.2 trillion and environmental groups with over 2 million members, argues that policy delays will increase economic and environmental costs.
• US CAP recommends legislation designed to limit global atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations to 450-550 parts per million. To achieve this, they propose mandatory US emissions targets: 100-105% of current levels within five years, 90-100% within 10 years, 70-90% within 15 years, and a long-term reduction of 60-80% by 2050.
• An economy-wide, market-driven cap-and-trade program is proposed as the best mechanism to achieve environmental and economic goals. This approach provides certainty and flexibility, allowing innovators to sell excess credits and ensuring a long-term price signal for carbon over the next 40 years.
• The International Energy Agency estimates that $20 trillion will be spent on new global energy infrastructure in coming decades, with approximately $4 trillion of that in North America. Lash warns that investing these funds in old fossil fuel technologies would jeopardize the opportunity to prevent dangerous climate change.
• Analysis of energy technology options for 2025 indicates that increasing fuel efficiency standards offers the strongest positive implications for both climate and energy security. Conversely, coal-to-liquids would significantly harm the climate, and corn-based ethanol provides only small climate benefits due to high fossil fuel energy inputs.
• The absence of federal leadership has led to a 'patchwork of regulation' as states like California, Oregon, and Washington implement their own CO2 offset requirements, and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative prepares for operation on January 1, 2009. A strong federal program is needed to provide a uniform economic signal.
• To mitigate economic transition costs, US CAP suggests that a significant portion of emission allowances be initially distributed for free to capped entities and disadvantaged economic sectors, with these free allocations phased out over time.

APA

Lash, J. (2007). Jonathan Lash's Statement To the US House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/publications/jonathan-lashs-statement-us-house-select-committee-energy-independence-and-global

Chicago

Lash, Jonathan. Jonathan Lash's Statement To the US House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. World Resources Institute, 2007. https://www.wri.org/publications/jonathan-lashs-statement-us-house-select-committee-energy-independence-and-global.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Lash |first1=Jonathan |title=Jonathan Lash's Statement To the US House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=10 October 2007 |url=https://www.wri.org/publications/jonathan-lashs-statement-us-house-select-committee-energy-independence-and-global |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{lash2007jonathan, author = {Lash, Jonathan}, title = {{Jonathan Lash's Statement To the US House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming}}, publisher = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2007}, month = oct, url = {https://www.wri.org/publications/jonathan-lashs-statement-us-house-select-committee-energy-independence-and-global}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }