With reports of a US Senate committee pushing the Bush administration to return to international negotiations on climate change, and with the Democrat-controlled Congress now considering a flurry of environmental legislation, global warming is creating new legal risks for business.

Expect climate change to be at the forefront of legal, economic and political news this year and the lawyers at the Chicago firm Jenner & Block have put out a good paper canvassing what to expect this year.

The paper, Climate change: what to expect in 2007, sets out the key legislative and litigation events to watch out for.

Provisions in the proposed legislation include a system setting out limits on pollutants and the purchase and sale of emissions credits by entities, setting up an oversight bureau for the sale or distribution and exchange of such credits, tax credits for plug-in hybrid cars, federal grants for clean-energy research and development and aid to small businesses that lower greenhouse emissions.

It remains to be seen whether any of the legislative trends will actually be signed into law. As Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the climate change denying champion outfit, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Karoun Demirjian from The Chicago Tribune, republished on the truthout site:

"It's going to be very complicated, with a huge amount of political infighting. We think we have a very good opportunity to stymie everything so that nothing will emerge."

Keep in mind too that the Bush administration is now slotting three people into top jobs affecting the environment who previously were blocked in Congress because of their pro-industry views. More on this from The Seattle Times.

Chances are the bills won't get through unchanged. But these issues are not going away. Business should keep an eye out on what's ahead.