Word: coal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...bill's opponents - Congressional Republicans, along with the oil industry and the National Association of Manufacturers, among others - say cap and trade amounts to a massive tax on U.S. energy, which mostly still comes from carbon-intensive fossil fuels like coal. That's partially true - the whole point behind cap and trade is to raise the cost of emitting carbon and drive investment in energy efficiency and renewable power. "No matter how you doctor it or tailor it, it is a tax," said Representative Joe Pitts, a Pennsylvania Republican...
True, no economic forecast of 15 years into the future is ironclad, but there are enough safety valves and offsets in Waxman-Markey to ensure the cost will be manageable. But that's the problem. To keep conservative Democrats on board - especially those in the coal-heavy Midwest and Southeast - Waxman and Markey allowed the bill to be watered down considerably, loosening the overall carbon cap and scaling back the renewable-energy standard. When the powerful farm lobby balked at the bill, it was changed to allow farmers to sell offsets from agriculture, such as no-till farming, which leaves...
...where we need to go on emissions reductions," says Keohane. But over the long run, we need to cut carbon out of our energy supply - and that means vastly increasing the role of renewables like solar and wind, along with low-carbon sources like nuclear and even coal with carbon capture. That will require plenty of hard scientific research to bring down the price of renewables - they have to be competitive not just in the U.S., but in countries like India and China, which will emit the vast majority of new carbon emissions in the future. "This legislation will finally...
...critics, the bill does have the backing of dozens of groups, including unions - even steel workers and coal miners - as well as six of the seven largest utilities, the Nuclear Energy Institute and, tacitly, Wall Street, which will benefit from the creation of a massive new energy-trading market. The majority of environmental groups support the bill, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the League of Conservation Voters, even if some groups feel that the measure is too weak. When Waxman announced the agreement in a press conference Wednesday, about 30 supporters wearing T shirts and carrying placards that...
...favorable tax regime for the agriculture and related sectors. The wasteful subsidy regime also needs to be overhauled. Fertilizer subsidies mostly benefit rich farmers and lead to gross overuse. "Subsidized electricity for farmers encourages excessive use, both of electricity and groundwater. And because it is mostly generated from coal, it results in a large amount of CO2 emissions," says Gerald C. Nelson, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute based in Washington D.C. Dr Rajeswari S. Raina, senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, adds that India needs a coherent policy on rainfed...