Kerry-Lieberman climate bill: The details [View All]

[ProSense]

Kerry-Lieberman climate bill: The details

by Eric de Place

Editor's Note: Please bear in mind that this is a "first read" of a very large piece of legislation. It was researched and written within 24 hours of the bill's publication.

The Kerry-Lieberman climate bill emerged yesterday mid-morning, weighing in at 987 pages. (Hey, changing the entire energy economy ain't easy.) Like the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last summer, the American Power Act is a comprehensive energy and climate bill. That means it touches a wide range of issues, from nuclear energy development to electric vehicles to offshore oil drilling. To find the full text of the bill, as well as several summaries, go to Senator Kerry’s website.

As I examine the nuts and bolts of the bill, I’ll post updates for readers. I am not, however, going to weigh in on every element in the bill. Instead, I’m going to focus mainly on the bill’s climate centerpiece: its cap-and-trade program. And I’m not going to focus on the politics – you can find armchair pundits all over the blogosphere – but rather on the policy itself.

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Kerry-Lieberman in its current draft form gives us plenty of causes for heartburn, from the minor (international aviation exemption) to the major (the abundance of offsets). But it’s actually better than I had allowed myself to hope for. Remember, we’re talking about the U.S. Senate here, an institution that gives disproportionate influence to small-population states and then requires a supermajority. I had expected a bill that was substantially weaker and more compromised than the House’s Waxman-Markey. Kerry-Lieberman is not. Aside from the massive handouts it pays to the nuclear power industry, my initial read tells me that it’s mostly better than Waxman-Markey: better market regulation, better consumer protection, and better offsets rules.

A comprehensive energy and climate bill like this one is a game-changer. It marks a fundamental, and I think irrevocable shift, in our way of doing business. It puts a bounty on carbon, and it marks out a clear path to a world where carbon emissions are a curiosity.