The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Clean Energy Update

6.9.09   •   Focus: the fiscally responsible plan to a clean energy future

The Clean Energy Jobs plan is both environmentally sound and fiscally responsible.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released a new analysis of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act and found that it will NOT raise the federal budget deficit. That means it will not require a PAYGO.

CBO's analysis states that Waxman-Markey will raise $846 billion over the next decade in revenues from the new carbon market, with the revenues dedicated to investing in clean energy jobs and to protecting consumers who have suffered under the weight of our old energy economy and OPEC-driven gas spikes.

More than 50 percent of the revenues from the pollution-cutting program will go back to consumers -- with at least 35 percent protecting against increases in electric, natural gas, home heating and propane bills; and another 15 percent to assist low income families.

Even before efficiency savings, consumer benefit measures and cost-saving technology gains are factored into the program, the EPA has indicated that the Waxman-Markey clean energy jobs plan would cost less than a postage stamp per day.

News Stories & Opinion Pieces

AP: Midwest governors seek aggressive emissions goals

The plan calls for a nearly 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2020, with an 80 percent reduction by 2050...

While the group prefers a federal cap-and-trade system, the recommendations give governors in the Midwest a possible framework for a regional system should Congress fail to act by 2012.

AP: Climate bill to pay hundreds of dollars in rebates

Low-income families will recieve hundreds of dollars a year to help pay higher energy bills if Congress enacts the first-ever limits on the gases blamed for global warming, according to a new analysis.

NYT/ClimateWire: House Climate Bill would trim budget deficit, CBO says

CBO's scoring of H.R. 2454 projects the bill's requirement that companies reduce their emissions or purchase alowances on an open market would bring in federal revenue of about $845.6 billion during the first decade of its operation. By contrast, federal spending is expected to increase by $821.2 billion, meaning the Treasury can expect a $24.4 billion net gain.

Boston Globe [Op-Ed by Chairman Markey]: The race for clean-energy innovation

American companies would get an edge with passage of the Waxman-Markey bill, the most sweeping energy legislation Congress has considered in a generation. The plan would end America's dangerous dependence on foreign oil, increase the amount of clean energy we produce, make our buildings, homes, cars, and trucks more eficient, and cut the harmful carbon pollution causing global warming.

Reuters: NY sees clean energy creating up to 50,000 jobs

New York could create as many as 50,000 jobs by converting 45 percent of its electricity needs to renewable energy sources by 2015...

The State [Op-Ed by Alston F. Lippert]: Wilson misses boat on cap and trade

First, a cap-and-trade system is neither ineffective nor necessarily a high-tax proposal. It only becomes a high-tax proposition for industries that are unable to met the goals set. The industries that can meet these goals are rewarded by being able to sell their excess permits to those that need them, resulting in profit. Thus, profit-seeking, a corner-stone of capitalism, drives the system and encourages efficiency and research and development efforts.

NYT: China and U.S. Seek a Truce on Greenhouse Gases

Many take the simple fact that the two nations, jointly responsible for more than 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, are even talking seriously to each other about the issue as a propitious sign after years of mutual distrust.