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All-out blitz to support Waxman-Markey Bill VIDEO OF AD
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A diverse coalition has launched a major media campaign urging Congress to pass the American Clean Energy & Security Act (aka Waxman-Markey), which is likely to come up for a vote on the House floor next week.
For example, a TV ad began airing Sunday on both cable and broadcast television in the Washington D.C. market and will continue to run through June 25. The ad can be viewed online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JidQnNxW3vM
The groups, which collectively have spent about $5 million to support a clean energy jobs plan through various types of media, include The Sierra Club, VoteVets.org, the League of Conservation Voters, America's Building Trades Unions, the Blue Green Alliance, the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, and the Service Employees International Union.
"We believe this is the most important energy vote that members of the House will ever cast, and we urge Congress to strengthen and pass this comprehensive clean energy legislation," said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters.
However, the green community is divided on the bill. Greenpeace USA, Friends of the Earth, and the Rainforest Action Network are among the organizations on record opposing it because of the cap-and-trade system (they prefer a carbon tax), and it offers too many giveaways to industry and utilities. Republicans generally don't like it because they don't think it's emission limits are needed.
Key features of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, according to published reports:
- Sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions at 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83% by 2050.
- Establishes a cap-and-trade program to encourage investment in clean energy technologies and new manufacturing jobs.
- Promotes clean energy by requiring that 20% of electricity comes from renewable sources such as wind, solar, certain types of biofuels, and energy efficiency by 2020.
- Protects the competitiveness of energy industries (such as concrete and steel) by giving them free permits or allowances, to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gases in the early years. This helps solve the problem of international competition from uncapped countries.
- Keeps utility rates low for consumers by giving 30% of allowances to local electricity and natural gas companies, and requiring the utilities to pass the benefits on to their customers.
- Protects low- and moderate-income households by allocating 15% of allowances to minimize impacts on these households.
- Provides an incentive for other countries without a cap on carbon to limit their emissions, by allowing the president to impose fees on carbon-intensive imports from nations that haven’t adopted their own greenhouse gas cap – starting in 2025.
One of the most welcomed features, according to the Environment Defense Fund, is the bill sets a declining cap on carbon pollution from large resources – coal-fired power plants, large factories, natural gas suppliers and fuels. The cap will be phased in over the next few years.
The bill’s 2020 pollution cuts would be equal to taking 500 million cars off the road, says the Fund.
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