House Democrats Plan to Introduce Greenhouse-Gas Bill

[cal04]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/03/30/house_democrats_plan_to_introd.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Key House Democrats will unveil legislation Tuesday that aims to cut the nation's greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, according to sources familiar with the bill who asked not to be identified.

The measure, co-sponsored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who chairs the panel's Energy and Environment Subcommittee, will serve as the main vehicle in the House for climate legislation.

It would establish a cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide that would allow cleaner facilities to sell their pollution permits to dirtier operations. While the bill remains silent on some key issues, such as what portion of pollution allowances would be auctioned off and how the money raised through such an auction would be spent, sources said, it would establish both a national renewable energy standard as well as an energy-efficiency-resource standard that would reduce electricity demand by 15 percent by 2020.

The emissions reduction targets, which are slightly more ambitious than President Obama's short-term climate goals, largely mirror those outlined by the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of business and environmental groups. By 2050, the bill would cut national greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent compared to 2005 levels.

[corruptmewithpower]

1. We'll need one heck of a lot of nuclear powerplants.

While Obama has said little about nuclear power since becoming president, his energy secretary has been unequivocal. "The nuclear industry has to be part of our energy mix," physicist Steven Chu said during his confirmation hearings. "It's 20 percent of our electricity production today, but it's 70 percent of the carbon-free electricity we produce."

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/03/29/the_coming_nuclear_renaissance/

:)