Waxman

This summer, Congress will decide whether or not to pass a comprehensive climate bill in the form of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). Until now, one big question was unanswered: Will it be too expensive?

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has released its analysis, and the answer is no.

The CBO's cost estimate projects that the climate bill would help reduce federal budget deficits by $24 billion over a decade.

ACES would raise $846 billion in its first decade, almost entirely through a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases intended to prompt companies to reduce their carbon emissions. During the same time period, the federal government would spend $821 billion through programs related to the bill.

The CBO report rebuts opponents of the bill who have claimed that it would be too costly.

“This certainly helps make the case for passage,” says Daniel J. Weiss, senior fellow and director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress.

“It won’t all of a sudden convince someone who is opposed to support it. That doesn’t happen. But it does take away a very important opponents’ talking point – something that the American people care about – which is the deficit.”

Read More

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• Laura Shin's blog
• 2 comments

After four days of debate and weeks of behind the scenes horse-trading with coal-state Democrats, Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey got the committee votes they needed tonight to send their American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) bill to the House.

Those votes didn't come cheap, though, and it shows in the nearly 1,000-page bill that was finally approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The bill is far weaker than President Obama and the nation's environmental leaders had envisioned. So much so that Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Public Citizen and nine other environmental groups announced tonight that they cannot support the bill unless it is significantly strengthened.

“While a week of debate failed to adequately strengthen protections for consumers, communities, and the climate in this bill, it erased all doubt of who will benefit most from it: Big Business," they wrote.

"The resulting bill reflects the triumph of politics over science, and the triumph of industry influence over the public interest.

Read More

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• Stacy Morford's blog
• Add new comment

U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey released a draft of their comprehensive climate legislation today – a 648-page proposal that plays to the political center, particularly the Midwest and coal state Democrats whose votes will be necessary for the legislation to pass.

The draft hits the president’s greenhouse gas reduction targets with cap-and-trade, sets a strong national renewable electricity standard, and proposes new energy efficiency requirements. At the same time, though, it allows for extensive industry offsets, and it could ultimately undermine the EPA.

In a conference call today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Markey reached out to environmental leaders and asked them to support the proposal.

The lukewarm embrace it received indicated that the centrist legislation hit its mark.