Waxman-Markey ACES Information: Top Ten Provisions

Top Ten Provisions of Waxman-Markey

1. Invests in Clean Energy: Helps revitalize the economy by investing $190 billion into clean energy like wind, solar, geothermal and advanced coal technology. The American Clean Energy & Security Act (ACES) establishes eight Clean Energy Innovation Clusters across the country, linking our top academic institutions with local clean tech businesses to get technologies from the lab to the marketplace.
2. Cuts Foreign Oil: Invests $20 billion in advanced fuel efficient vehicles like plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars and trucks, so that the next generation of drivers may never use a gas pump. When the bill is combined with fuel economy and renewable fuel standards already put in place, America will save more than 5 million barrels of oil a day, more than we already import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined. America is ready for an oil change, and ACES is that change.
3. Creates American Jobs: ACES will create millions of new clean energy and efficiency jobs that can't be sent overseas to China and India. Provides $865 million in job training assistance to help America's clean energy workers transition to new jobs. American workers will export wind turbines and solar panels that say MADE IN AMERICA, instead of America importing millions of barrels of oil a day that say MADE BY OPEC.
4. Builds a Smarter Grid: ACES encourages a Smart Grid that will create an electricity internet by using E-Chips (electricity computer chips) and other technologies in appliances, homes and businesses, empowering consumers to save money through innovative telecommunications technologies.
5. Efficiency Savings for Families & Small Business: Saves consumers $69 billion annually by 2030 by making our buildings, homes, appliances, and lights use less energy. New buildings and homes will be 50 percent more efficient by 2016, and old buildings will be retrofitted with energy-saving technology. Efficiency provisions in ACES will avoid the need to build more than 150 large power plants, with cumulative savings totaling $4,000 per household by 2030. When it comes to energy, we need to work smarter, not harder.
6. Spurs Private Investment: Establishes a "Clean Energy Bank" to provide seed money to American clean energy projects. Federal investments in clean energy technologies will unleash more than $1 trillion in private investment. America shouldn't have to trade a dependence on Middle East oil for a reliance on East Asian batteries.
7. Protects Families: ACES dedicates more than 50 percent of the program directly to consumer protection measures, including hundreds of dollars in energy rebates annually to low-income families. After years of suffering from gas price hikes at the hands of big oil companies, consumers finally will receive protection from price spikes.
8. Reduces Carbon Pollution: For the first time, ACES puts a cap on the carbon pollution causing global warming, reducing carbon and other heat-trapping pollutants 83 percent by 2050. The program makes polluters pay, driving down emissions over time by about 2 percent a year. American leadership on global warming will help pave the way for an international agreement that gets all polluters on board. An overwhelming 97% of scientists have determined that global warming is a man-made problem.
9. Safeguards Forests and Wildlife: Provides $65 billion in funds to protect forests, which will help cut carbon emissions by an additional 10 percent, and provides $8 billion to help protect wildlife endangered by global warming. We must protect our forests, which are the lungs of our planet, and all of God's creation.
10. Is Fiscally Responsible: The Congressional Budget Office found ACES will not raise the federal budget deficit or taxes. Because the plan is paid for by polluters, we can go green without putting our budget in the red.

More Information
American Clean Energy and Security Act
Full List of Supporters of ACES
Full Waxman-Markey ACES packet 

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