When the America Power Act was first introduced in mid-May by Senators Kerry and Lieberman, it was a serious bill.  It tackled offshore drilling, clean coal technology, voluntary carbon markets, nuclear energy, and a comprehensive cap and trade system for CO2e emissions. But with support of anything climate change related waning in Congress, Kerry and Lieberman have issued a new draft of the bill.

The main focus is placing regulations on utility companies.  Since electricity generation is responsible for over 30% of America’s emissions, and the US is one of the top GHG emitters in the world, it is logical to create a cap and trade system for this industry over any other. But even with the shock of the BP oil spill still reverberating in our public conscious and economy and the potential promise of thousands of “green-collar jobs” that could appear from domestic investment in alternative energy, there is doubt as to whether even this scaled-back bill may pass. If the re-tooled bill does pass, carbon credit permitting would make utility companies reduce emissions by 17% by 2020, with the possibility for companies to invest in carbon sequestration project to further offset emissions. With previous promises from President Obama to make climate change a priority, as well as the tension-filled climate talks to take place in Mexico in November, the US needs to take some sort of legislative action to mitigate global warming, and fast.