Earth Equity News

Senators Maria Cantwell and Susan Collins Introduce 'Cap and Dividend' Bill. By H. Josef Hebert, AP, December 11, 2009. "Two senators on Friday offered yet another approach to tackling climate change [The Carbon Limits and Energy for America's Renewal Act -- CLEAR], proposing the government sell pollution allowances to industry to cut greenhouse gas emissions and then use most of the money to send tax-free monthly checks to every American. The 'dividend' checks, estimated to average about $100 a month over nearly two decades, would be aimed at offsetting the higher cost of energy. The proposal by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was being offered as an alternative to a more complex cap-and-trade climate bill already before the Senate and approved by the House. Cantwell said her approach is a simpler way to reduce carbon pollution and boost clean energy alternatives. Like the rival Senate bill, it would impose limits on greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels and is designed to cut emissions by 20% by 2020 and about 80% by mid-century... The bill introduced by Cantwell and Collins adds yet another alternative, raising more uncertainty as to what kind of climate legislation is likely to emerge when the Senate focuses on the issue early next year... Cantwell and Collins largely abandon the broad cap and trade approach that has been the focus in the Senate up until now, and which has been widely attacked by Republicans and some centrist Democrats as too complex, subject to manipulation and tantamount to imposing a huge energy tax and threatening jobs."