US energy bill

The American Power Act (APA), a draft bill proposing a cap and trade system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, was introduced yesterday in the US Senate by its two main sponsors, John Kerry (D) and Joseph Lieberman (I).The bill aims to reduce emissions by 17% by 2020 and by over 80% by 2050. A similar piece of climate and energy legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, better known as 'Waxman-Markey' after its sponsors, was approved by the House of Representatives in June of last year.

Hopes of a massive US compliance market for REDD carbon credits, raised last spring by the passage of a REDD-tinted, cap-and-trade-based climate & energy bill through the US House of Representatives, have rested since then on the chances of a similar bill being passed by the Senate. Following the passage of health care reform and substantial progress on financial sector reform, that august body had appeared poised to pick up, finally, where the House had left off. A bipartisan bill, sponsored by Senators John Kerry (D), Lindsey Graham (R) and Joseph Lieberman (??), was to have been launched last Monday. That's when Arizona's immigration politics and the Gulf of Mexico's spilled oil chanced to intervene.