America's Climate Security Act of 2007
Congress takes crucial steps toward mitigating climate change.

Of the hundreds of climate change bills introduced in the 110th Congress, only S. 2191, America’s Climate Security Act of 2007, has emerged out of a congressional committee and come close to full debate on the floor. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the bill on December 5, 2007. America’s Climate Security Act caps greenhouse gas emissions, offers states critical funding to reduce global warming pollution, and promotes innovative land use policies and green infrastructure techniques that will contribute to worldwide carbon sequestration. Although this bill faces some barriers to passage in the full Senate, the progress of this measure sends a signal that the climate change issue will finally receive serious consideration in Congress.

America’s Climate Security Act sets mandatory caps on commercial facilities that release greenhouse gases. The caps are expected to cover more than 80 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. To aid facilities in the transition to lower greenhouse gas output, the legislation would provide a series of emission allowances. During the first year the legislation is enacted, these allowances would total an amount of greenhouse gases falling below 2005 levels. After the first year, the allowances would decrease annually. The legislation’s goal is to achieve a yearly 2 percent reduction in greenhouse gases, leading to a 70 percent decrease in emissions by 2050.

Additionally, America’s Climate Security Act provides a total of $530 billion in transition funding for states to use for an assortment of carbon-reducing initiatives, as well as programs that reduce a state’s reliance on oil and natural gas. These include advancing green technologies that reduce or sequester greenhouse gases. Funding may also go toward infrastructure improvements, such as improved public transportation services and recycling services. The bill also provides funds for states to carry out sustainable water projects.

Notably, the bill recognizes the impact that land use policies have on climate change, a previously accepted principle of the landscape architecture profession. The legislation directs the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to develop land restoration, reforestation, and improved forest management activities in countries outside the United States. The legislation requires that these activities be carried out and managed in accordance with environmentally sustainable forestry practices. Additionally, reforestation activities must be designed to promote native species and to avoid the introduction of invasive species. This directive may provide opportunities for landscape architects to use their experience to help develop international reforestation plans.

The bill also encourages building codes that call for 30 to 50 percent reductions in energy use. This may provide landscape architects many opportunities, including sustainable site planning and the design of green roofs, walls, and other infrastructures, which all lead to significantly reduced energy costs associated with heating and cooling buildings.

For more than a century, landscape architects have been leaders in developing sustainable land use policies and in applying design practices that lead to environmentally sound communities. The American Society of Landscape Architects is pleased that America’s Climate Security Act of 2007 includes many of these techniques to reduce the threat of climate change and encourages practices integral to the landscape architecture profession.

The Society will closely monitor the progress of this legislation, and it will continue to support climate change policies that engage sound landscape architectural principles.