Up in the Air

By Bill Polits
The wait is over - the United States Senate has produced a bill as an answer to the House's Waxman-Markey bill: the Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733). Like the House bill, greenhouse gases are mandated to be reduced to 83% of 2005 levels by 2050, but the near term target for the year 2020 is a 20% reduction as opposed to the House's 17% reduction by that year.

The bill designates that allowances and carbon auction proceeds should go to energy consumers and deficit reduction, but it does not provide amounts, which it will leave to the Senate Finance Committee to hammer out. The Energy Jobs and American Power Act contains provisions for a separate HFC cap-and-trade program that is nearly identical to the House bill.

It's obvious that US lawmakers are aware of the need to take an aggressive stance in advance of the Copenhagen meeting on climate change in December. But the fact that the Senate bill has been introduced with an aggressive carbon mitigation schedule, combined with the Obama administration's announcement today that it will allow the EPA to crack down on large CO2 emitters sends an especially strong signal that legislators are serious about curtailing greenhouse gas emissions. The takeaway for the fire safety community is that it looks good for plans to reduce HFC production.