American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) President and CEO Thomas J. Gibson offered the following comment on the climate change legislative proposal.
"We have only had time to make a quick review of the Kerry -Lieberman climate bill, and will need to undertake a thorough evaluation before making a more comprehensive set of comments on the proposed bill. At first glance, we are greatly concerned that the proposed legislation does not go far enough to ensure the steel sector's competitiveness in the global marketplace. As we have consistently stated, without sufficient allowances to compensate for emissions compliance costs and additional measures to offset the near-certain cost increases for energy, the leakage of both carbon emissions and manufacturing jobs is likely.
Additionally, while we acknowledge that the proposed bill includes a provision for a border measure, the draft mechanism includes too many loopholes to be effective in addressing the threat of leakage to countries that do not have in place comparable greenhouse gas emissions regulations.
"We do agree with the Senators that national climate legislation should supersede existing state and federal laws currently being used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources. AISI also appreciates the proposed federal research and development effort for breakthrough technologies and its provisions to expand America's energy supply through off-shore oil and gas access, incentives for nuclear power and advanced coal technologies.
At this initial stage, AISI will further analyze the bill to examine whether or not it adequately addresses the competitiveness concerns of steel and other energy-intensive, trade-exposed manufacturing industries."