There it is……

Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Edward J. Markey introduced “H.R. 2454, The American Clean Energy and Security Act.”  The Energy and Commerce Committee will begin markup of the bill on Monday, May 18, 2009, at 1:00 p.m., and will complete consideration before the Memorial Day recess.

“The legislation will create millions of new clean energy jobs, save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, promote America’s energy independence and security, and cut global warming pollution,” said Chairman Waxman.  “In support of these goals, this legislation ensures that consumers and industries in all regions of the country are protected.  I look forward to working with all members of the Committee to approve this legislation to make America the world leader in new clean energy and energy efficiency technologies.”

For some of you who have time on your hand, the proposed bill is over 900 pages long.

There have been a lot of complaints – mostly from the Republican side – that the greenhouse gas cap-and-trade bill is a “tax” on Americans.  These same people fail to understand that the purpose of the bill is to provide a disincentive for industries (primarily the coal-fired power plants) to continue to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That’s the whole idea of cap-and-trade. If you cannot meet the emission limit, you have to go to the open market and purchase emission credits. For those companies that choose to install emission control equipment, they would not have to pay millions to purchase emission credits. The bill would create jobs in the pollution control industry.

If cap-and-trade is to be considered a “tax”, then the regulations that control the disposal of  hazardous and toxic wastes would also be a “tax” because companies that generate hazardous wastes will have to pay more to have them disposed of properly. Are we against the regulation of toxic wastes?

So are those people who are against cap-and-trade also against regulating the disposal of toxic wastes? How would these people feel if some company dumps a load of toxic wastes on their front lawn where their children play?

Anyone cares to comment?

It is interesting to note that many major utilities are FOR the cap-and-trade law. Duke Energy is one of them.

The latest on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) bill in Congress

As many of you know, the Obama Administration is pushing for legislature in Congress that will regulate GHG. In fact, President Obama told 34 Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 5 that he would like to see cap-and-trade legislation before the end of this year.

One of the targets in the original proposal from the White House was to reduce GHG to 14% below 2005 emission levels by 2020. The powerful Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Henry Waxman set the target at 20% below 2005 emission levels by 2020 in his own original draft cap-and-trade bill. This was a much more ambitious target than the White House’s. It has been reported that Waxman will be softening his target to 17% as a compromise to attract more Democrats in his committee to vote for it.

There are 59 members (36 Democrats and 23 Republicans) on Waxman’s committee. He needs 30 votes to get any legislation out of the committee. At last count, Waxman has 18 yes votes (all Democrats), 19 maybes (all Democrats plus one Republican) and 22 no votes (all Republicans). He needs to get 12 votes out of the 19 maybes to pass his legislation.

In case you are wondering who is that lone Republican in the “maybe” column. That is Mary Bono Mack – who was married to the late Sony Bono (of Sony and Cher fame).

The firm of Cantor Fitzerald has a website that does an excellent job in tracking the cap-and-trade legislation. This post is based on the report from that website.