Congress begins grappling with climate change

Washington's short attention span was apparent last week, as Congress moved on from economic stimulus spending and outrage over bonus payments for AIG executives to the weighty task of crafting legislation to address climate change and promote clean energy. House and Senate leaders made clear their intent to enact the country's first-ever mandatory limits on emissions of carbon dioxide through a cap-and-trade mechanism and pledged to do so this year. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee began its markup of an energy bill, leaving the more contentious provisions, including cap-and-trade, to deal with after lawmakers' return from their two-week Easter recess.

In the House, Henry Waxman (D-CA), the newly installed chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Ed Markey (D-MA), the chairman of the energy and environment subcommittee, unveiled a 648-page draft bill that includes a cap-and-trade mechanism. Hearings on that legislation also are set for after the recess, while the chairmen expect to report a bill for full House consideration by Memorial Day. Their proposal calls for a 20% cut by 2020 in CO₂ emissions from 2005 levels, compared with the 14% reduction contained in President Obama's budget released in February. The draft bill also would require that by 2025 25% of US electricity be supplied from renewable energy sources, an enormous increase from the 7% share contributed by renewable sources in 2007, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Meanwhile, more details emerged about the Obama administration's forum on energy and climate change, which Physics Today mentioned last week. The forum will consist of a series of meetings that will convene representatives from the European Union, the US, and 16 other nations that produce the lion's share of the world's greenhouse gases.

While the Obama administration claims it as its own, the forum was actually established during the Bush administration to serve as an alternative forum to the United Nation's Kyoto Protocol--which the US declined to join--for the consideration of multilateral actions in response to climate change. The White House said the forum "will facilitate a candid dialogue among key developed and developing countries, help generate the political leadership necessary to achieve a successful outcome at the UN climate change negotiations that will convene this December in Copenhagen, and advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions."

The preparatory session will be held 27-28 April at the US State Department. In July, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will host the leaders of the forum nations, in La Maddalena, Italy.

David Kramer