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

Jonathan Lash, representing the US Climate Action Partnership (US CAP), advocates for a federal cap-and-trade program and a long-term emissions roadmap to transition the United States to a low-carbon economy. He emphasizes that clear federal rules are necessary to avoid a regulatory patchwork of state laws and to provide the market certainty required for large-scale private investment in clean energy technologies.

• The US Climate Action Partnership (US CAP) argues that policy delays will increase economic and environmental costs and that the US needs a long-term roadmap, a carbon price, clear rules, and a level playing field to shift to a low-carbon economy.
• To avoid the most disruptive climate impacts, US CAP recommends limiting 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.
• US CAP advocates for an economy-wide, market-driven cap-and-trade program to establish a carbon price, which would provide investors with the certainty and flexibility needed to factor carbon costs into long-term decisions.
• The document identifies a critical need to avoid 'lock-in' of inefficient infrastructure and fossil fuel-based technologies, noting that the world is expected to spend $20 trillion on new energy infrastructure in coming decades, with approximately $4 trillion in North America.
• Analysis of energy technology options indicates that increasing fuel efficiency standards offers the strongest positive implications for both energy security and climate. Conversely, coal-to-liquids would negatively impact the climate even if CO2 is captured, and corn-based ethanol provides limited climate benefits due to high fossil fuel inputs.
• The absence of federal leadership has led to a 'patchwork' of state-level regulations, such as initiatives in California, Oregon, Washington, and the Northeast's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which fails to provide a uniform economic signal or scale up technology investment.
• To mitigate economic transition costs, US CAP suggests that a significant portion of emission allowances in a cap-and-trade system should initially be distributed for free to disadvantaged sectors and entities, 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} }