by Barbara Boxer
Last Wednesday we took a major step forward in the fight against global warming. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and I introduced the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733) which addresses major challenges of our generation:
- Protecting our children and the earth from dangerous pollution;
- Putting America back in control of our energy future; and
- Creating the policies that will lead to millions of new jobs.
It was so exciting to look out at the crowd that day on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol, and to see such a broad coalition of supporters
(click here to read reaction to our bill), including environmental organizations, wildlife protectors, religious leaders, business leaders, workers, state and local officials, national security leaders, and veterans
(click here to watch video of last week’s event).
I want to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit more about the bill, and to talk about what this will mean for our nation’s short term recovery and long term prosperity.
To start, we built on the successful House effort. One key difference is that our bill has stronger targets in the short term, the goal is a 20% cut in global warming pollution by 2020 and an 83% reduction by 2050. Our bill also maintains the protections of the Clean Air Act.
The Kerry-Boxer bill also establishes a Pollution Reduction and Investment system that is designed to steadily reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in a cost-effective manner. The largest 7500 carbon polluters in the country must obtain allowances. These facilities account for nearly three-quarters of U.S. carbon pollution.
The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act also includes strong principles for market transparency and oversight, and a soft "carbon collar" to limit speculation and maintain the environmental integrity of the pollution cap.
Our bill does not add one penny to the deficit.
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