The long delayed Climate Change Bill was unveiled by Senators Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Kerry, D-Mass, on Wednesday and immediately drew criticism from both the liberals and the conservatives, who viewed the bill as either an energy bailout or a danger to the American economy.
The main agenda of the bill aimed at reducing global warming would require 7,500 domestic factories and power plants to meet reduced emission targets. The sponsors said their aim was to reduce 2005 levels of carbon pollution by 17 percent in 2020 and by more than 80 percent in 2050.
Kerry has expressed hope that it will pass in this congressional session. Barack Obama threw his weight behind the bill and urged the Congress to act on it.
“Now is the time for America to take control of our energy future and jump-start American innovation in clean energy technology that will allow us to create jobs, compete, and win in the global economy,” he said.
The bill presented on Wednesday differs drastically from House-approved climate-change legislation that would impose an economy-wide “cap-and-trade” program forcing manufacturers, utilities and other polluters to purchase emission allowances in order to comply with tighter limits on carbon dioxide.
The bill also proposes to:
• Encourage states to allow offshore oil drilling with plans for revenue sharing that would allocate 37.5 percent of revenues from drilling going to states and 12.5 percent going to state and federal programs under the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It would also allow a state to bar drilling within 75 miles of its coastline.
• Prevent states from implementing or enforcing their own “cap-and-trade” programs.
• Create a program to help low-income families pay higher energy costs brought on by the bill.
• Invest more than $6 billion a year to improve transportation and highways on the theory that it will increase the travel efficiency and decrease emissions.
Energy companies like Shell and Conoco Phillips issued statements supporting the bill while Marvin Fertel, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute said drafting of the bill was a “very collaborative, very open, very involved process.”
But the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association rebuked the bill saying that it would lead to steep increases in energy bills for families and businesses.
He found support in Phil Radford's, the executive director of Greenpeace, criticism of the bill contending that it will only encourage offshore drilling and called it “largely a dirty energy bailout bill.”
