On the last days of September of 2009, the United States Senate presented a renovated bill from the House of Representatives to Congress called the Senate Climate Bill (SCB).1 The aim of the legislation is to boost the green economy through investment in energy technology. The authors behind the bill, who include California Senator Barbara Boxer and Ex Presidential Candidate John Kerry, estimate that a rise in the clean energy sector will help minimize the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, and create more jobs specifically in the construction industry, which the bill states has 17 percent higher wages than the national hourly mean. But how, in detail does the Senate propose this massive reduction of greenhouse gas emissions take place? Ultimatums and climate change goals are always proposed and even sometimes passed, yet who is holding the government accountable to follow through on this legislative promise? This article is a summary of the 821 pages of the bill so citizens can know exactly what initiatives are involved in the SCB.
The first thing SCB does is recognize that climate change exists and says that this change will cause irregular and extreme weather patters that will put military, public, and private infrastructure at risk. Acknowledging the presence of global climate change—good; explaining that global climate change is more than an environmental killer, in fact, is more of a infrastructural socioeconomic risk—even better. The proposed four step program to national reduction of greenhouse gases (ghg) includes the following rates:
- In 2012 ghg emissions must be 3 percent below 2005 levels
- In 2020 ghg emissions must be 20 percent below 2005 levels
- By 2030 ghg emissions must be 42 percent below 2005 levels
- By 2050 ghg emissions must be 83 percent below 2005 levels
In other words, by 2020 the United State’s emissions have to be more than 5 percent below 1990 levels.2
The SCB is somewhat dependent upon the Clean Air Act and some of the programs it initiated to help pick up all the pieces in making these dates and rates possible as well as provide a portion of the funding for SCB.
Title I: GHG Reduction Programs
A. Clean Transportation
In short, transportation used for what the authors titled the “commercial goods movement system” will get new ghg emission standards. However, for trucks these standards will be decided by the time the bill is passed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and for other forms, such as trains, the standard will be established in December of 2012. These so far standard-lacking standards are both flexible and alterable from time to time. Emission trading will be allowed between all of these modes of industrial transportation.
In metropolitan areas, city planners are to build in a way that supports the use of the public transit system while at the same time encouraging citizens to use alternative forms of transportation such as ride sharing and biking. The greening of city design will appropriately be left in the hands of state and local governments. Once the bill is passed, states have two years to design a greenhouse gas emission reduction plan and have clear strategies on how to meet those goals. Basically, the bill encourages cities to put funding towards building bicycle paths and improving rail systems rather than adding an extra lane on the five-lane freeway. The Federal Government will even provide grants from the Department of Transportation and those receiving government help will get 80 percent of their project paid for by the Feds.
B. Carbon Sequestration
Besides forming committees, this section delegates that coal-fired power plants reduce their carbon dioxide emissions 50 percent annually, which will be accomplished through carbon sequestration (CS). The bill also states that possible areas of carbon sequestration will be heavily reviewed to ensure no carbon leakage and will of course need to first be approved by the EPA. The bill also issues $1 billion to be used for CS research in order to make the technology more feasible and more available.
C. Nuclear and Advanced Technologies
Perhaps the shortest section of the 800-plus page bill, Section C discusses the benefits of nuclear power. It states that 17 companies have submitted applications for a total of 26 nuclear power plants, which the authors of the bill support building. The Secretary of Energy will also allocate funds to support nuclear science in the educational system. The Secretary of Energy will also create a new governmental research and development program for this technology as well as for waste management, which is seen as a main downside of nuclear energy.
D. Water Efficiency
To promote water conservation, this bill would create Water Sense, a program that labels water-conserving products as such and encourages consumers to buy them through financial incentives.
E. Miscellaneous
The Office of Consumer Advocacy is created to protect the consumer against energy companies. The section also gives the EPA the right to give grants to entrepreneurs whose businesses would be supporting the progress towards energy or water conservation or environmental improvement. Grants are also given to agricultural or forestry landowners that sequester carbon.
F. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
In short, this bill gives money to programs to promote smarter energy use either through renewable energy sources or increased efficiency. This includes changing building codes to become more energy smart, promoting biofuels, and giving federal money to state governments in order to improve their own building efficiency.
G. Emission Reductions from Public Transportation Vehicles
Under this bill, taxis would be held to Federal, State, and local government emission standards and fuel efficiency requirements.
H. Clean Energy and Natural Gas
The EPA would be given money to promote research and development of these fields notably in the utility sector, which is currently based around coal technology.
Title II: Research
A. Energy Research
The EPA is going to use a bunch of money to do research on energies that will decrease the United State’s dependence on foreign oil, which is viewed as a security issue.
B. Drinking Water Adaptation, Technology, Education, and Research Global climate change is going to affect everything, even drinking water. Therefore, more money will be allocated to water utilities to study these effects and prepare for them.
Title III: Tradition and Adaptation
A. Green Jobs and Worker Transition
Though this section is entirely vague, the premise is that the government would provide grants that would go to developing programs to train workers for green careers.
B. International Climate Change Programs
Under this clause, the President would create a sort of Justice League of climate change, comprised of key environmental government people, such as the head of the EPA. These players would keep an eye on funds going in and out that are meant to be used for climate change research. But of course climate change is a global issue and the bill suggests that a focus be put on third world countries and how the U.S. can help such nations prevent deforestation. Forests, after all, are natural carbon containers. But the authors of this bill aren’t only worried about human resource and under this section money is set aside for research on how to help wildlife adapt to this climate change through wildlife and forestry services.
Title VII: Global Warming Pollution and Investment Program
Businesses required to reduce their carbon footprint may offset up to a quarter of their emissions in foreign nations. The already in tact cap and trade program will also include a “market stabilizer,” or a certain tonnage of emissions that will be auctioned off. These figurative emissions will act as a safety net to those who may pollute more than initially expected. However, offsets will be defined by the President and then be specifically defined, no doubt so they will not be misused, with special interest on foreign nations.
The last few hundred pages then go on in lengthy detail to discuss the legalities of financial allowance that are given to States, agencies, Tribes, etc. to promote basically all programs relevant to this bill. Take it from someone who read through it: this portion is best left to legislators to argue over and is less important to voters who are curious about the content of the bill. We are only now left to wait and see…
