Waxman kicks off climate debate

[babylonsister]

Waxman kicks off climate debate
Posted March 31, 2009 11:50 AM
The Swamp

By Jim Tankersley


House Democratic leaders unveiled a sweeping plan to fight climate change and boost renewable energy this morning, including mandates for renewable electricity nationwide and a market-based system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

It's a starting point in what promises to be a long and winding congressional debate over energy and climate policy this year. And it leaves some critical questions unanswered - most notably, how to allocate emissions permits, and what to do with any revenues that selling those permits could raise.

The plan, posted on the House Energy and Commerce committee website, is a "discussion draft" authored by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who chairs the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming. Read a summary of it here and the full text here.

Among the bill's provisions:

* A nationwide mandate for renewable energy - such as wind, solar and biomass - in electric power generation, starting at 6 percent in 2012 and rising to 25 percent in 2025.

* A so-called "cap-and-trade" program to restrict greenhouse gas emissions by requiring utilities and other emitters to hold "allowances" for the carbon dioxide they send into the atmosphere. The level of allowances would shrink annually to reduce carbon emissions to 3 percent below 2005 levels by 2012, 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.

* A mechanism for emitters to buy so-called "offsets" - a sort of emissions credit that comes from spending money to reduce emissions outside the scope of the cap-and-trade system.

* A national standard, akin to California's, limiting carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles - and a new low-carbon fuel standard to further support biofuels and low-emission alternatives to gasoline.

* Support for carbon-capture and storage technology, which, if perfected, would remove the carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants and store them underground - essentially allowing coal, a major carbon emitter, to maintain its place in American power generation.

* New mandates for energy efficiency in appliances, lighting, vehicles and buildings.

* A variety of measures supporting so-called "green jobs," including worker training.

* "Rebates" for manufacturers hit hard by additional energy costs imposed by the bill.

Many environmentalists immediately applauded the plan.

more...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/03/waxman_kicks_off_climate_debat.html#more

[Mass]

1. Yes, and my congressman is with him on that. Thanks to Waxman and Markey.\nt

[Deep13]

2. We just wasted eight years that we did not have.

:(