U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee approves landmark climate change bill
After months of hearings, and four grueling days of debate the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), a wide-ranging bill that includes a cap-and-trade provision that will seek to cut U.S. greenhouse gases by 17% by 2020.
The bill was passed along mostly partisan lines — 33 for – 25 against – with only one Republican voting for the bill. “Today the Committee took decisive and historic action to promote America’s energy security and to create millions of clean energy jobs that will drive our economic recovery and long-term growth,” said Chairman Henry Waxman (D – Calif.).
Commenting on the bill President Barack Obama said: “We are now one step closer to delivering on the promise of a new clean energy economy that will make America less dependent on foreign oil, crack down on polluters, and create millions of new jobs all across America.”
As part of the legislation’s cap-and-trade platform — the bill’s heart and soul — the government will give energy incentive industries an electricity utilities half of all CO2 emission trading permits.
U.S. power Utilities have mostly come out in favor of ACES, although one dissenting voice came from Warren Buffet’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings, whose chairman, Chairman David Sokol warned in a written statement that cap and trade would have “a profoundly negative impact on people who are struggling to make ends meet in an economy still in distress.” The Natural Resources Defense Council said the bill would create “millions of good-paying American jobs.”
Rep. Waxman says he expects a whole House floor vote by the end of the summer.
