The Waxman Markey Bill

First of all, I need to acknowledge the two very wonderfully positive feedback about my blog this week which gives me immense pleasure to keep at the task:) Man is a creature of habit, they say. And this habit is greased and facilitated by appreciation, I say:) Heartfelt thanks to the people who appreciated the effort!

So, now to the most written topic of my blog: The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, popularly known as the Waxman-Markey bill. This bill is being reviewed by several committees in the House and one of them,Energy and Commerce Committee, just approved the bill, though in a slightly different version. All these slicing and dicing by the various committees will produce a version of the bill that will be tabled on the floor of the House for voting. There is still a long way to go for this bill, or any of the radical measures included in it, to become a reality. However, it much be acknowledged that this is the first time a serious climate bill has gone this far in the US political arena. Nobody knows what the final version of the bill will end up becoming but anything with such a starting point will not go that awry! Anyway, we shall deal with the changed version passed in the House committee later, first the initial draft of the bill!

The bill has 4 titles in it, which are:
Title I: Clean Energy
Title II: Energy Efficiency
Title III: Reducing Global Warming pollution
Title IV: Transitioning to a clean energy economy

There are such radical thoughts in it that one cannot be left unimpressed by the enormity of the changes it seeks. Some of the salient features of the bill are:

- Renewable portfolio standards of 6% by 2012 and 25% by 2025. This means that 6% of the total energy by 2012 and 25% of the same by 2025 HAS to be produced from renewable sources like wind, solar, biomass etc. Imagine what impact such a policy would have on the renewable sector. This would provide the much needed fillip for this sector in the form of government backing, something that it always yearned!

- My favorite: Money has been allocated for demonstration plants for Carbon Capture and Sequestration(CCS). If this clause passes the muster, well....I must say I am smiling from ear to ear while writing this one:)

- There is some talk on cleaner fuels and vehicles and smart grid. We shall look into what a smart grid is at a later date.

- A major emphasis is on improving the energy efficiency of the economy. Logically, the more efficient you are, the less you need to consume. Simple,right? Well, keep in mind that things are not that logical in politics always:) Refer to my last week's post for more details!

- Cap and Trade system: This is the most radical proposal of the bill. It seeks to reduce the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by 3%,20%, 42% and 83% below 2005 levels by 2012, 2020, 2030 and 2050 respectively. This is to be effected by putting a cap on the emissions, creating credits for the level of emissions and allowing the different players in the economy to trade these credits among themselves at a market determined price.One more market is being created and this one will be bigger than anyone can imagine. In the interest of time, I shall take this again in a later post. You should not be spending hours on a blog! Reading this post is not your primary job, right?:P

- There are other schemes to make a transition to a cleaner energy economy and some provisions to make this transition seamless.

This is a HUGE HUGE bill in the climate arena! I just hope it passes, in some form. I still remember the day Obama talked about this bill, I decided to go ahead and apply for a PhD after my MS. Stopping after a Masters degree would be a crime in this radical area, right? Any more doctoral candidates in the making?:P

P.S.: I intend to take a lot of the issues I briefly touched in detail in later posts. Let me know if anything is not clear above and I shall make sure to enunciate that point later.