Carbon Footprints

Bloomburg is reporting “Global Warming Bill With Cap-and-Trade Plan Gains Committee Nod“, saying

A House committee passed a climate-change measure that would create a cap-and-trade system to control greenhouse-gas emissions, the most comprehensive effort yet by the U.S. to tackle global warming.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday approved the bill 33-25, with one Republican joining all but four Democrats in support. It now faces review in as many as eight House committees.

This is a positive first step but there is a long road yet for the Waxman Markey Bill, aka the The American Clean Energy and Security Act.

Under the proposed scheme,

the ceiling on greenhouse-gas emissions would be divided into billions of permits, each conferring the right to emit one metric ton of carbon dioxide. In 2016, the first full year of the cap-and-trade program, the Environmental Protection Agency would distribute 5.48 billion permits.

The federal government would auction 15 percent of the permits to pay for programs that help low- and middle-income families pay their energy bills. Most of the remaining permits would be given away to industry and state governments, with the power sector receiving the largest share, at 35 percent.

By 2020, the EPA would distribute a reduced number of permits — 5.06 billion — to enforce the greenhouse-gas target for that year. Fewer permits would be issued each year until emissions are cut 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, according to the legislation.

This is very similar in design to the Australian Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Fingers crossed this bill gets through without too much watering down. — DS

Technorati Tags: cap and trade, carbon, CO2, emissions trading, Markey, politics, USA, Waxman, Waxman Markey Bill

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 5:47 PM and is filed under Forces for Good. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.