Washington, D.C. – Today, the Center for American Progress releases its "Stone Soup Clean Energy and Climate Bill." It combines the most effective provisions of existing energy and global warming bills, and provides a recipe for a comprehensive four title bill proposal that Senator Reid can bring to the Senate floor on July 26th.
According to Politico, “Reid confirmed the bill will have four parts: an oil spill response; a clean-energy and job-creation title based on work done in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; a tax package from the Senate Finance Committee; and a section that deals with greenhouse gas emissions from the electric utility industry.” He indicated that Senate leaders would spend the next week putting together a bill with these four titles.
The approach could be akin to the children’s story “Stone Soup.” No villager alone had the ingredients to make a hearty meal for soldiers passing through their town, but each brought an ingredient and together they created a community soup. By the same token, no existing Senate energy bill has all of the needed components, but it is possible to craft a comprehensive clean energy and global warming bill that would actually achieve Reid’s four goals by combining the most effective provisions from a number of existing bills.
Senate committees have reviewed or voted on many of the existing bills. Combining their provisions into a single bill should make it easier to draft the bill and build support for the overall package. Think of it as “The Stone Soup Clean Energy Bill.”
Listed below are provisions that we consider to be the most effective from existing legislation for each section outlined by Senator Reid.
Oil spill response: address this nightmare and prevent future disasters
Clean energy and job creation: spur investments to revamp manufacturing, create jobs, increase energy security, and cut pollution
Reduce oil use: make cars much more fuel efficient, boost cleaner alternative fuels such as electricity for cars and natural gas for trucks, and invest in public transportation
Clean energy infrastructure: rebuild our aging, inefficient electricity grid to transmit clean, safe, domestic wind, solar, and renewable electricity generated in rural areas to more populated places
Clean energy finance: increase access to capital for clean energy entrepreneurs and help launch new technologies via a "green bank"
Invest in energy efficiency: a variety of measures such as HOMESTAR or ACELA
Renewable energy: establish a renewable electricity standard of 15% by 2020; 25% by 2025; utilities will generate electricity from the sun, wind, earth, ocean waves, and biomass
Clean manufacturing and job training: help manufacturers recover by helping them reduce energy use and costs, as well as increase the domestic production of clean energy technologies.
Clean energy tax provisions: extend existing tax clean energy tax incentives; close loopholes that benefit big oil companies
Limits on pollution from the electric utility industry: support reductions for carbon pollution from at least one of the biggest sources—such as power plants. Return 2/3’s of revenue from pollution allowances to ratepayers; invest the rest in clean energy technologies
Click here to read more about each provision, and the full article.
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