2009 Clean Energy Bill — Cap and Trade and You
We seldom stray from the home front and the small picture. Today I’m a little excited by the likely passage tomorrow of the Clean Energy Bill. Warts and all, it is a small first step in a long political climb out of denial and into a clear-eyed accountability that will be difficult to reverse once it takes hold. For too long (well before Bush, so calm down GOP readers) we’ve denied that we might just possibly be fouling the nest. Now a strong Democratic majority is being joined by moderate and progressive Republicans to issue an IOU to the nation and the world on cleaner air and slower climate change.
Is the Waxman-Markey Bill a home run? No. Not even a sliding double. It’s a bunt toward first base that we can run out and hope that future administrations/generations will swing away and bring us around to home. The measures (17% reduction in targeted greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, 80% reduction by 2050) agreed upon after much compromise will not by themselves reverse the ominous predictions of scientists convinced that recent and future climate change on this planet is largely man-made. Glacial melt will continue, carbon dioxide levels will still increase, and coal power plant emissions will continue to blot out the heavens, as in the header photo. But the way America looks at industrial emissions will change forever.
So much is missing from the bill. There is no scrutiny of the actual energy and climate cost of the ethanol and bio-fuel industries on which so many people have pinned their hopes. There are no real jaws to close upon persistent offenders: indeed, “cap and trade” means that dirtier industries will be purchasing “carbon credits” from cleaner industries not needing them, and the sale of these “pollution indulgences” will be mostly unregulated. Trouble brewing there, I’ll wager.
But, we and Al Gore are exhilarated by this first step, out of proportion to the actual impact of the bill. Due credit to Bush One for signing the U.S. into the Kyoto Protocols in the early 90s, but no piece of legislation since that one has had the same impact, for this one reason: the cat is out of the bag, and, having admitted to ourselves that the job is before us, we are unlikely to retreat again into the darkness under the pillows.
Legislation is boring to read, and I’m only linking to a “talking points” discussion by the bill’s authors here. In order to give the bill a chance at passing, Waxman and Markey pulled back from the bold early drafts in order to court bipartisan support. In the event, only eight Republicans in the House voted for the bill, and all were promptly savaged by staunch conservatives, who favor increased investment in oil and gas for America’s energy future.
The Clean Energy Bill is touted by its supporters to be economically positive, creating jobs and provoking the kind of technological stampede for which Americans are famous when they get hold of an idea. I’m imagining home-brew CO2 sequestering devices being whipped up in garages, and complex climatic models coming out of college dorm rooms. Heaven knows, that’s how Hewlett and Packard and Gates and Allen, respectively, started out to change the world. The currency for which America has long been most famous is entrepreneurial innovation. The Waxman-Markey Bill is a big kick in the butt for inventors, venture capitalists and investors looking for reasons to come out of their economic bunkers and start generating life-changing ideas again.
Tags: Conservation of Resources, Energy as Lifestyle, Smart Living
HVAC strategies, Resource Management, The Good Life | admin July 2, 2009
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By sch, July 15, 2009 @ 8:45 am
so, dude, was reading your stuff with lame thoughts of my own. if China, India, et al are not on board for capping emissions then, really, what’s the point? and if businesses can trade, and lo, they will and because the increases in cost of production will be passed onto yours truly who is to benefit beside large businesses (which includes Al Gores current business)? also, wouldn’t it be wonderful if our representatives actually READ the bill?
By admin, July 16, 2009 @ 8:53 am
steve, you got your finger on the sorest nerve. The “why should we when they won’t?” problem is only going to get solved by a leader, then a few followers, then global pressure from China’s trading partners to step up. Truth is, China is moving through their industrial revolution to a more enlightened economy much faster than France, England or the US. If you believe, as I do, in the court of world opinion, then you can imagine China and India following us into a new age, just like American car companies slowly, grudgingly are stepping up to standard the Europeans have been using for years.