Climate-Energy Bill Comes Before Congress
New climate-energy legislation progressing in Congress would highlight the biggest shift in United States energy policy in 30 years, pushing the economy toward renewable energy and away from fossil fuels. If the bill, which cleared a key House committee May 21, is ratified by Congress, it would be the biggest leap by the United States – the world’s largest greenhouse-gas emitter per capita – toward curbing climate change.
If President Obama signs the bill before December climate talks in Copenhagen, as some suggest is possible, it would give the United States a significant role in crafting a multinational response to the climate issue.
Because stemming carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels is central to the climate conundrum, the new American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee addresses energy and climate in one bill. Here is an overview of its key points:
The ACES bill emphasizes on the smokestacks that generate 85 percent of United States greenhouse emissions. It follows a three-pronged way to move the nation to a low-carbon economy by rising energy efficiency, developing renewable energy sources like solar and wind, and curbing greenhouse-gas emissions (GHGs).
Together, these are intended to cut United State’s emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 – a compromise from the recently set 20 percent cut. That should put the country on the road to attain 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 to help prevent the worst effects of global warming.
The bill aims at a head start of United States push into energy-efficient technologies and grow green jobs, while boosting national security by transferring the United States vehicle fleet toward utility of domestic electricity rather than imported oil.
The main technique to achieve this would be to limit emissions utilizing a market-based “cap-and-trade” system for industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters. Starting from 2012, a national “cap” – or total maximum CO2 emissions – would be set and then ratcheted downward yearly.
Electric utilities, cement and steel plants, and others would require one “allowance” for each ton of CO2 sent up smokestacks. Power plants emit about 2.4 billion tons of CO2 annually – nearly 40 percent of total United States greenhouse-gas emissions.
A key portion of the bill is a national renewable-energy standard combined with an energy-efficiency standard. United States electric utilities would have to acquire 20 percent of their power from a mixture of renewable sources (15 percent) and energy efficiency (5 percent) by 2020. But in a major compromise, governors could petition to higher the amount of energy efficiency up to 8 percent, with just 12 percent coming from renewables. Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, the Democratic co-authors of the bill, accepted the lesser standard to win support of Democrats from states where coal-fired power plants predominate.
The total abatement price would be $22 billion in 2015, growing to $31 billion in 2020 and $64 billion in 2030, the EPA reported in April. This would minimally curb average annual United States economic progress from 2.71 percent to 2.69 percent. The price per household is estimated at $98 to $140 annually.
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