Climate change bill moves along
Post ID #1084 | RSS comments feed for this post
Yesterday, U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer(D-CA) and John Kerry(D-MA) unveiled the Senate version of the climate change bill(PDFs: Overview, Summary, Full text of Bill). Note lack of the term "Cap and Trade" and that the Senate version is more ambitious than the House version, see below the fold for a few details.
House wants to cut CO2 emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, while the Senate shoots for 20 percent.
The Senate explicitly supports nuclear power and natural gas.
Pollution permits between $11 and $28 dollars for less price volatility, in the Senate version.
The House version imposes a mandatory carbon tariff on imports from other countries that don't adopt their own climate programs by 2020. The Senate version doesn't address this issue at all.
Which industries get free pollution permits? The Senate left that blank, while the House specified.
The EPA gets to regulate large sources of greenhouse gases on its own in the Senate version, while the House version essentially takes over that function.
These are just the highlights, more differences can be found in the original link.
House wants to cut CO2 emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, while the Senate shoots for 20 percent.
The Senate explicitly supports nuclear power and natural gas.
Pollution permits between $11 and $28 dollars for less price volatility, in the Senate version.
The House version imposes a mandatory carbon tariff on imports from other countries that don't adopt their own climate programs by 2020. The Senate version doesn't address this issue at all.
Which industries get free pollution permits? The Senate left that blank, while the House specified.
The EPA gets to regulate large sources of greenhouse gases on its own in the Senate version, while the House version essentially takes over that function.
These are just the highlights, more differences can be found in the original link.
Posted by brandonb at 7:57 AM on October 1st 2009
I see it as Democrats saying they're doing the most important energy legislation ever while Republicans cite it as another sign of a socialist government takeover.
Meanwhile, all the questions remaining about climate change fall under what the effects will be, how bad it will be, and how we will adapt.