When it comes to pouring over hundreds of pages of climate legislation, and breaking it all down, we leave it to the pros.  Just as we did with the House's “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009” (also known as the Waxman/Markey bill), we turned to Jesse Jenkins, founder and chief editor of WattHead for thorough research and analysis of the recently released draft Senate climate bill, the  “Clean Energy Jobs and America’s Power Act".  Introduced by senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry, this draft legislation was applauded by President Obama for it's,"efforts to advance historic comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation in the U.S. Congress."

In a piece by Jenkins found on theenergycollecitve.com titled, "Anatomy of a Bill: Key Features of Kerry-Boxer Senate Climate Bill", Jenkins bullet point lists the important pieces of this draft legislation.  Here's a taste:

• The big difference between the House and Senate bills, which will be a big focus of media coverage of the bill, is the bill’s “more aggressive” 2020 emissions reduction target: 20% below 2005 levels vs. the 17% reduction targeted by the House bill.  The bill also preserves the ability for EPA to separately regulate emissions from greenhouse gases where necessary under the Clean Air Act, a big priority for environmental advocates.  However, the bill also reduces the portion of the economy covered by the emissions cap, moving methane emissions from coal mines, landfills and oil and natural gas distribution facilities (e.g. pipelines) outside of the cap.  Instead, these emissions sources are included in the expanded list of eligible sources of domestic offsets.  I’m still digging into how large a change this is, but one analyst I spoke to initially calculated that this change may erode half or more of the additional reductions required by the more aggressive 2020 emissions target.

Read his entire analysis HERE. 

 

---

---