Earth Equity News

Was Waxman-Markey a Waste of Energy? By Kate Shepard, Mother Jones, March 9, 2010. "In early March, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) dropped some surprising news: The effort to tackle global warming via a cap-and-trade scheme is officially 'dead'. Graham, John Kerry (D-Mass.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) will soon release details of an alternative plan for a bill to curb carbon emissions, which is expected to cobble together policy proposals from various lawmakers in the hopes of picking up a filibuster-proof 60 supporters... For almost a decade, cap and trade has been viewed as the approach with the best shot of making it into law. The idea is that the government imposes a cap on polluters, and those companies who emit too much can buy permits from companies that produce less than their limit. Nearly a year ago, Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) introduced legislation to the House that sought to enact such a system. Months of torturous negotiations followed, in which major energy interests scrambled to grab a piece of the pie... Despite the horse-trading, the carefully calibrated 946-page final bill retained its core goal: reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17% by 2020 and more than 80% by 2050.

"Now, the key players on the Senate climate effort are signaling that instead of focusing on a cap and trade scheme, they may instead adopt a hybrid approach that would scale back the permit-trading program, cap only electric utilities rather than polluters across the entire economy, and return revenues from the sale of pollution permits to consumers through an energy rebate program known as a dividend. Meanwhile, environmental advocates are bracing for what one described as a 'bloodbath' when the Senate bill is finally released. In addition to scaling back ambitions for the bill, the Senate's legislation is widely expected to include generous investments in conventional energy sources -- namely nuclear power, coal, and offshore oil drilling. Environmental advocates are engaged in a tense debate over whether they can stomach a whole new raft of concessions. 'It's really clear that whatever attains 60 votes in the US Senate at this stage in the game is at best an extremely incremental step forward,' said Gillian Caldwell, campaign director at the environmental group 1Sky."