Congress and the EPA Both Take Steps to Control Global Warming

The big news out of Washington, DC, this morning is about climate-change legislation and regulation.

U.S. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) yesterday introduced the long-awaited Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, a Senate bill aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. At nearly the same time, the Obama administration announced that the Environmental Protection Agency would move forward with new rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from factories, power plants and other large industrial facilities.

First, let's take a look at the new Senate legislation, which was introduced in the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chaired by Senator Boxer. Like the Waxman-Markey bill that was passed by the House in June, the Kerry-Boxer legislation proposes an economy-wide cap-and-trade system that would place strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from large polluters such as factories and power plants, reward the most efficient companies, and create economic incentives for less efficient companies to improve.

The Senate bill calls for a 20-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2020, a tougher standard than the 17 percent reduction the House bill proposes and much more stringent than the 14 percent reduction suggested by President Obama, but far short of the 40 percent reduction from 1995 levels that many scientists and environmental groups say is needed. Proponents say the Senate bill would create as many as 1.9 million new jobs and make America more energy independent by helping to enable the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

"This bill is a good beginning. It is the first of many steps toward a cleaner, healthier, and safer world," said Environment America's Federal Global Warming Program Director Emily Figdor in a statement shortly before the bill was introduced. "A major strength of the bill is that it preserves and builds on the Clean Air Act's protections, which will enable America to move to wind, solar, and other clean energy technologies by requiring the nation's fleet of old and inefficient coal-fired power plants to eventually meet modern pollution standards.

There are many differences between the House and Senate bills, which will need to be worked out in conference after the Senate bill is passed. The job of a conference committee is to reconcile differences in House and Senate bills that are aimed at the same issues, and then present the two houses of Congress with a new bill they can both pass. Meanwhile, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act is likely to undergo many changes in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and during floor debate before the full Senate votes on it.

The EPA announcement isn't quite as momentous as either the Obama administration or most media outlets are claiming. Essentially, it's a refinement of rules the EPA already announced, but the new twist is that when the EPA does start regulating greenhouse gas emissions on stationary sources, it will only impose those regulations on large facilities that emit at least 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide yearly. This modification of the 250-ton standard set forth by the Clean Air Act effectively exempts small businesses while zeroing in on power plants and factories account for nearly 70 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson took a get-tough stance in making the announcement.

"We are not going to continue with business as usual," Jackson said during a conference call with reporters. "We have the tools and the technology to move forward today, and we are using them."

President Obama has said all along that he would prefer a legislative solution to address the broad issues of climate change rather than simply trying to regulate greenhouse gas emissions piecemeal, so the timing of the EPA announcement may be partly designed to help spur Congress to take definitive action. At the same time, federal regulation is sure to be part of any congressional solution, so it's not a bad idea for the EPA to start laying out a regulatory framework.

• EPA Proposes National System to Monitor Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• EPA Declares Greenhouse Gases a Threat to Public Health and Environment
• What is Cap and Trade?