a238  1540  28 Jul 88
AM-Greenhouse,0307
Senators Offer Plan to Combat Greenhouse Effect
By DAVID GOELLER
Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Sixteen senators, including the Energy Committee
chairman, unveiled a comprehensive plan Thursday to combat the global
overheating that scientists say threatens the planet in the 21st
century.
    Their legislation, with proposals ranging from developing safer
nuclear power to minimizing destruction of Third World forests,
represents the broadest Capitol Hill response yet to warnings from
scientists about the so-called greenhouse effect.
    ''The greenhouse effect is the most significant economic, political,
environmental and human problem facing the 21st century,'' said Sen.
Tim Wirth, D-Colo., the principal author of package.
    Joining him at a news conference was Sen. J. Bennett Johnston,
D-La., the energy chairman who has over the years been identified
more with energy development and production than with environmental
protection.
    Johnston, who recently held a hearing on the greenhouse effect, said
that ''the evidence of global warming is virtually undeniable. It is
so much more comprehensive, dangerous and life-changing than anything
we've ever seen.''
    Aides said that Johnston has become convinced that global action is
necessary to combat the production of carbon and other greenhouse
gases that scientists say trap heat in the atmosphere, threatening
major changes in climate and higher ocean levels.
    Johnston, who said he would hold more hearings in coming weeks,
stopped short of endorsing a key element of Wirth's proposal:
requiring new car fleets to average 55 miles per gallon by 2010, or
double the 1985 fuel efficiency standard.
    The legislation would force this country to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions by 20 percent by 2000. Scientists estimate that carbon
dioxide, coming mostly from fossil fuel combustion, produces about
half the greenhouse effect. The United States is said to be
responsible for 20 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions.
 
 
AP-NY-07-28-88 1830EDT
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