Congress Tackles Climate Change

American lawmakers gear up for a contentious vote tomorrow on a sprawling energy bill meant to address climate change. Unsurprisingly imperfect, its passage would still mark a huge and necessary step forwardTomorrow, the United States House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a historic bill -- the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454).Sponsored by Representatives Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markley (D-Mass.), this is a landmark comprehensive energy bill, and it includes a cap-and-trade global warming reduction plan designed to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020.According to the World Resource Institute, the United States has emitted more global-warming greenhouse gas than any other nation in the world in the last 150 years, accounting for 29 percent of the planet's total since the mid-19th century. The polar bear is just one of many species that are disappearing due to man-caused global warming.The bill's many provisions include requirements for utilities regarding renewable energy, studies and incentives for new carbon capture and sequestration technologies, home- and building-based energy efficiency incentives and grants for green jobs.Speaking at a White House news conference on Tuesday, President Obama said:"This legislation will spark a clean energy transformation that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet."This energy bill will create a set of incentives that will spur the development of new sources of energy, including wind, solar, and geothermal power. It will also spur new energy savings, like efficient windows and other materials that reduce heating costs in the winter and cooling costs in the summer."These incentives will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy. And that will lead to the development of new technologies that lead to new industries that could create millions of new jobs in America, jobs that can't be shipped overseas."At a time of great fiscal challenges, this legislation is paid for by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air we breathe. It also provides assistance to businesses and communities as they make the gradual transition to clean energy technologies."According to the New York Times, "there is no certainty that they will assemble enough votes to pass it on Friday over near-unanimous Republican opposition," which is based on a belief that "it would effectively impose a national energy tax that would destroy jobs and cause large price increases for all forms of energy." The climate change bill has been referred to by the GOP as the "Democrats' Energy Tax."According to Reuters, Republican lawmakers working together as the Rural American Solutions Group said the bill will "make it more expensive for rural Americans to fertilize the crops, put fuel in the tractor and food on the table."They showed a map to the press that they claimed revealed the impact of the cap-and-trade system, which they said would benefit New York, New Jersey and California, while harming most southern, southwestern and midwestern states. The GOP representatives failed to mention that the map came from the National Mining Association, the mining industry's main Washington lobbying group, and only considered the cost of the legislation while disregarding the benefits.Now a divided House moves towards a vote on the heels of the Obama administration's June 16 release of "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States," the first major report on the subject since 2000. Federal law requires that the government issue a comprehensive report on the effects of climate change every four years. The Bush administration, which resisted releasing a climate report, was finally forced to release a draft last year due to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity.The report's key findings are:1. Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced.2. Climate changes are underway in the United States and are projected to grow.3. Widespread climate-related impacts are occurring now and are expected to increase. 4. Climate change will stress water resources.5. Crop and livestock production will be increasingly challenged.6. Coastal areas are at increasing risk from sea-level rise and storm surge.7. Risks to human health will increase.8. Climate change will interact with many social and environmental stresses.9. Thresholds will be crossed, leading to large changes in climate and ecosystems.10. Future climate change and its impacts depend on choices made today.According to Care2.com, the report -- which was a collaboration of 13 federal agencies as part of the United States Global Change Research Program -- "makes clear that global warming is not an opinion to be debated, but rather scientific fact to be addressed.""The legislation now on the table isn't the bill we'd ideally want, but it's the bill we can get," writes New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, "and it's vastly better than no bill at all." He notes a "serious objection to Waxman-Markey is that it sets up a system under which many polluters wouldn't have to pay for the right to emit greenhouse gases -- they'd get their permits free. In particular, in the first years of the program's operation more than a third of the allocation of emission permits would be handed over at no charge to the power industry," pointing out that "handing out emission permits does, in effect, transfer wealth from taxpayers to industry.""After all the years of denial, after all the years of inaction, we finally have a chance to do something major about climate change. Waxman-Markey is imperfect, it's disappointing in some respects, but it's action we can take now," says Krugman. "And the planet won't wait."Neither will the polar bears.GET INVOLVED * Sign an Oxfam America letter to Congress showing your support of the bill (US citizens only) * Sign an Environmental Defense Action Fund letter to Congress showing your support of the bill (US citizens only) * Call your representative at 877-973-7693, say "Vote 'yes' on American Clean Energy and Security Act," then report your call to Repower America, a campaign of Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection (US citizens only) * Take the Public Agenda quiz and find out how much you know about energy * Sign the "We Can Solve It" petition for a global treaty on climate changeRELATED POSTS * In the Dark (June 21, 2009) * The True Cost of Megamalls (June 2, 2009) * Sittin' on Top of the World (April 29, 2009) * Ashley Judd to Congress: Commit Some Cap and Trade Revenue to Help Wildlife (April 25, 2009) * Appalachian Mountains Get A Breather (April 12, 2009) * Burning the Midnight Oil, But No One's There (April 1, 2009) * Polar Transcendentalism (May 11, 2009) * Selling the Arctic's Future to the Oil Industry (March 9, 2009) * What Is Clean Coal? (February 28, 2009) * Gore: "Shake Off Complacency" (January 29, 2009) * Farewell to the Polar Bears (January 14, 2009) * Creating Jobs, Saving Wildlife, Protecting Public Land (January 8, 2009)image: polar bear mural, Sea World, San Diego (credit: San Diego Shooter)