Senate climate bill tougher than House version

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Draft version calls for 20 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2020

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats are pushing for a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2020 — deeper than what the House has passed and what President Barack Obama wants — according to a long-awaited bill that will test how serious the U.S. is about slowing global warming. The Democratic bill is to be released Wednesday by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee with a vote by the panel likely in late October.

House Democrats could win passage of only a 17 percent emission cut by 2020 and Obama originally had sought only a 14 percent cut. However, aides who worked on the Senate version said it includes measures that will make the Senate's target easier to achieve and cheaper for consumers.

The bill obtained by The Associated Press remains subject to change. But the overall carbon reduction requirements are expected to stand. The bill includes an economy-wide cap and trade system that would require power plants, industrial facilities and refineries to cut carbon dioxide and other climate-changing pollution. While there would be an overall emission cap, polluters would be able to purchase emission allowances to limit reductions. The bill, however, does not lay out how emission allowances would be distributed, a contentious issue left for resolving later.

I have really mixed feelings about cap and trade as it allows pollution to continue

The 800-page bill calls for a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions beginning in three years, to be tightened annually so that emissions would be 20 percent lower in 2020 than they were in 2005. Emissions would have to be 83 percent lower by 2050. While the long-term cuts are the same as required by the House in June, the Senate bill has bigger early targets, something many in industry oppose.

why the fuck wait 3 years? We don't have 3 years we need this legislation to go into effect yesterday