Sen. Boxer To Propose Cap-And-Trade, $15B Energy Innovation Bills

Today, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, announced that she will introduce two pieces of green legislation in January.

The first is a proposal to create a grant program that would hand out $15 billion a year to support clean energy innovation. This is in line with Barack Obama's campaign promise to spend $150 billion over 10 years on clean energy, and with the widely perceived need for economic stimulus during the economic downturn.

The second bill would direct the U.S. EPA to develop a carbon cap-and-trade system by amending the Clean Air Act. Boxer offered few details about the program beyond saying that it would be "streamlined" and simple -- perhaps an implicit reference to the bloated, complex Lieberman-Warner bill that died in the Senate last year.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[ohiomark]

Co2 is NOT a pollutant, trees, plants and crops rely on it. Carbon has zero monitary value.

The only way that changes is for government to give it value and give hucksters like Al Gore an avenue to get rich from it through his "carbon credit" company.

Cap and Trade is a scam and it will only raise taxes, give government more power over our lives and cost jobs.

Get over yourselves Libs, you can't change or control the climate, just adapt.

[research]

CO2 at just 5% will kill you.
http://www.inspect-ny.com/hazmat/CO2gashaz.htm

"the Dose makes the poison."

[ohiomark]

Only about 0.03 percent of the Earth's atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide (nitrogen, oxygen, and argon constitute about 78 percent, 20 percent, and 0.93 percent of the atmosphere, respectively), so I'm not to worried about it reaching 5% anytime soon.

[kellygrrrl]

wow! I was just telling my husband this same idea last night. YAY BB!!!!!!

[Happyashell]

How to reduce oil imports and stick it to Opec and the oil companies!

If President Elect Obama is serious about decreasing oil imports and changing the transportaion fuel that propels our transportaion vehicles, then it truely is a time for change!
This is the perfect opportunity to start the process of making the change to another propellant. Transportaion fuel prices have fallen consideraly in recents months. Now is the time for the States or the Federal Government to attach the $1.25 or more, per gallon, Oil Preservation Exchange Contrabution (OPEC), onto transportation fuel prices. At the same time enact a law that decreases the income tax by the same doller amount. The people who's income is below the national poverty level who do not pay income taxes should receive a monthly check , even through they don't own a transportation vehicle, equal to the cost of the OPEC, that the average driver would be paying each month. This provision would encourage the use of mass transit . OPEC must be renvenue neutral. The legistration must have a provision that unconditionaly gurantees that the OPEC will remain renvenue neutral forever.
Transportaion fuel prices can only increase so much, until people start changing their driving habits. This is good for the enviroment and the economy. At a certain price the use of f oil decreases and alteritive means of perpelling transpotation vehicles takes place. If the government increases the price of oil transportation fuels with the OPEC, the oil companies can't.

[Photofarm]

The way to end the United States is to implement any type of carbon tax, or cap n trade etc. BTW, all of the " Global Warming Experts " are having to back peddle since we have had global cooling the last 10 years.

[research]

We need to get off fossil fuels for a whole host of reasons anyway.

Global cooling is easily dealt with by releasing methane, which has 20 times the green house effect as CO2.

[Photofarm]

No, we don't have the ability to change the climate in any predictable way, plus natural changes and cycles are at play that we don't understand.

[Anciano]

Cap N' Trade is Bullshit. If I sell the rights to not break into my neighbors house to a burglar it creates a secondary market in burglary credits that helps the economy and generates fees. I make money, the burglar that buys them gets an extra house to break into and the cost of breaking and entering goes up, so there is less of it. Will someone please use the reply space to explain how breaking into people's lungs with pollution is different than breaking into your neighbor's house?

[research]

Because if we don't do it, we have two choices:

Continue increased pollution.

Outlaw pollution plunging the world into a cold dark depression.

[research]

how about 700B$

public works or war.

The only two ways out of this depression.

[Russycle]

I just don't see the point of cap and trade, seems like a lot of overhead and room for obfuscation compared to a straightforward carbon tax. But I guess "tax" is the shortest 4-letter word in Washington.

[vladp]

cap and trade is a scam. not unlike indulgences of the middle ages.

[ScarletKnight1307]

I think this should be part of the stimulus package and they should move that figure up to 30bb giving the state of the economy you have a lot of skilled workers and unskilled workers out of work now and there is no reason to spread this out over 10 years I think they should do it in 6 years to transform the economy if there is a reward for increasing it to 30bb. Is the Technology ready to put mass capital other than wind? Those Wind turbines have to be made somewhere.

[KillTheMessenger]

There are limits to how fast one can grow industries. Every company depends on many other companies for machines, tools, supplies etc.. The weakest link usually breaks the chain. In the solar industry that's semiconductor manufacturing. And the growth of that is limited by how fast the people who make the processing equipment can make more of it. For wind it might be the supply of large machine parts. One can't just order a three ton piece of machined steel and have it delivered to ones door the next day. There are usually 6-18 months timescales involved, all of which are now longer because of missing credit to buy the materials to satisfy orders. $15 billion is probably a lot for the first year. A better plan would be to make less money available now and make the ramp for more orders dependent on the performance of the suppliers. That way everybody has a sense of where this if going and we wouldn't be wasting money because of shortages that will be leading to higher prices.

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

this is going to get good
"I did not know this was going to happen"
- Obama former voters

The GOP will be back 2010/2012

[ScarletKnight1307]

Sure you are

[KillTheMessenger]

But will they come back as two parties or three? That's the $64,000 question.

:-)

[vippy]

Why would anyone want back what has been ruined this past eight years? Seems like we will
never want the GOP back and people will feel it here pretty soon and then they can thank
BushCo.

[Anciano]

Let's help bury the GOP. The election is not over. We have taken a vow not to spend one cent on anything we don't have to buy such as food or gas until the Obama/Biden administration is sworn in. Bush"s so called rebates of our own future tax refunds and his pleas to go shopping show the importance of consumer spending to the legacy of Republican economics. Bush hijacked the country for the benefit of the wealthy for eight years. Let the wealthy keep the Bush consumer economy going for the next two months until the Republicans are flushed in disgrace. Learn about and patronize your smaller locally owned businesses and pay cash so it's under the radar of statistics. We're hoarding all our discretionary spending until the Obama Administration when the recovery can begin.

[curiousasheck]

How bout reigning in Big Oil and Energy so we all don't go bankrupt paying our utility bills before we get a chance to even get started?

Hmmmm? Make Sense?

[alvdh1]

Barbara, I implore you to alllow access to the grid by small business and residential producers of green energy. If you allow access to the grid and pay small producers of green energy full retail rates for their excess capacity, we will flock to green power without huge government subsidies. This will put people back to work more quickly. Throwing $15 billion at solar withou giving access to the wind will be tantamount to throwing the money into the wind. This money should instead be spent on tax credits for energy efficiency upgrades for LED lighting, thermal insulation and efficient windows systems so that we use the green energy more wisely. Applying the $15 billion to energy efficiency will have much more impact on putting people back to work immediately.

The government should establish a national uniform grid interconnect rule. 37 states have net metering laws. Aside from no financial incentive like receiving full retail prices for excess capacity, the utilities have written the grid interconnect rules which in most states are cost prohibitive. I suggest that everyone who is interested in this concept, read the 2007 Freeing the Grid Report. It is available online for free.

[wdw102]

i agree with you on your post.......i just don't agree with cap and trade

[vippy]

She has stock in oil. Don't fall for this.

[ainuke]

Wow! Cap and trade, what a stupid idea.
I tell you what, let's try it with crime, first, to see if it works. It goes something like this: every American is allowed 4 robberies and .25 murders per year (these numbers can be "massaged", of course, to better reflect Americans true need for violence). If you don't feel like you need them, or want to decrease your "crime footprint", you can sell your unused "crime credits" to your local crime lord (or eBay, if you prefer). The result: an overall decrease in crime, and more efficient murder, rape, robbery, assault, etc. What a bargain!

[Sumocat]

'Cap and trade' worked with the Acid Rain Program.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_Rain_Program
The situations are not identical, but the better-than-anticipated success of the Acid Rain Program sets a strong precedent. Also, the Kyoto Protocol is a 'cap and trade' system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol#Emissions_trading
I'll wait on more details for this particular plan before passing judgment, but I think it's premature to assume it's stupid. And certainly 'cap and trade' itself has proven its merits.

[Sumocat]

The Dems aren't wasting any time getting s*** done. Anyone remember what the Republicans did with their control of Congress and the White House in 2000? I recall there was an aimless slashing of taxes and the unfunded No Child Left Behind program, followed by sitting around until September. Less drama over Bush's cabinet picks though. One of the benefits of cronyism.

[wdw102]

great well i'll just toss another log on the fire............and obstruct this crap with no details