Word: bille
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Environmentalists were ecstatic when the House of Representatives passed the carbon cap-and-trade bill, led by Democratic Representatives Henry Waxman and Edward Markey, in June. Certainly, the legislation to limit national greenhouse-gas emissions could have been stronger, but the very possibility that the House would pass any such bill would have been unimaginable a year ago. And the timing was perfect. With do-or-die climate negotiations set for the U.N.'s global-warming summit in Copenhagen at the end of the year, the U.S. needed to show the world that it was ready to act on carbon...
...Waxman-Markey Bill, which the House passed in July, is a strong step in the right direction. But much of the public momentum behind the bill stalled after it was sent to the Senate and health-care debates took over. This is not to suggest that people have completely forgotten Waxman-Markey. Power companies and other opponents of the bill have quietly continued to lobby for lower restrictions and decreased stringency in the proposed cap-and-trade system. An op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer over Labor Day lambasted the bill for the supposed job losses it would cause...
...Instead, that task has fallen to small, independent think tanks and policy institutes. Their efforts to counter the claims of opponents of the bill have produced eye-opening reports. The most important of these, issued last week by the Institute for Policy Integrity, conducts a cost-benefit analysis of the Waxman-Markey program and finds, counter to objections, that the bill would have a net benefit of as much as $5.2 trillion. The report included a median projection for net benefits of $1.2 trillion and found that even more stringency could actually be more beneficial. Their estimations also ignore...
...same time that the IPI published its findings, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy published a report that found the Waxman-Markey bill would generate 7,700 jobs in Colorado alone. And the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that Waxman-Markey would have a net positive impact on government finances to the tune of $25 billion...
...Waxman-Markey do not have a voice that can match the public claims of naysayers. In the din over the health-care debate, it is difficult for their reports to reach the public or the ears of policymakers, while opponents continue to work through lobbyists to weaken the bill. If the U.S. is to have a meaningful climate-change policy, policymakers cannot weaken the House bill any further. The Obama administration must take a leadership role in moving public debate beyond just health care and revitalize the discussion of Waxman-Markey...