Senator says "Global Warming Bill Needs Work"

A bipartisan Senate bill to limit greenhouse gases will have a hard time getting the 60 votes needed to overcome parliamentary roadblocks unless it addresses some of industry's concerns, a Republican senator said Friday.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, told reporters that a requirement in the bill to cut heat-trapping emissions by 15 percent by 2020 can't be met without a push to develop new technologies such as ways to capture carbon dioxide from coal-burning power plants.

"Technology should be driving all this," said Voinovich. He said he favors action to address global warming, but that any bill should include incentives to develop the technologies — such as carbon capture from power plants — needed to meet the emission-reduction mandates.

Legislation introduced last week by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., would require that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants, industrial facilities and transportation be cut by 70 percent by mid-century.