When it comes to energy reform on Capitol Hill, there’s a lot of maneuvering going on right now.  So far this year, seven different pieces of legislation from both democrats and republicans have either been introduced, passed Senate committee or passed in the House.  Melaine Nutter, an aid for Congresswoman and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stated very clearly at a recent Business Council on Climate Change meeting that Pelosi has made climate legislation one of the flagship issues of her leadership.

With Pelosi at the helm, the House of Representatives as passed one of the seven bills, called the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). It would include a cap and trade on carbon emissions, require the EPA to set vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards, increase incentives for plug in vehicles, bring more efficiency to buildings and promote performance standards for coal fired power plants.   In addition, it would require the country get at least 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030. 

However, it’s up the the Senate to finish the job of putting a price on carbon emissions and building a new, green and cleaner energy economy.  As it stands today, the American Power Act, introduced by Senators John Kerry and Joe Liberman is likely to be the foundation with which the Senate forms is version of climate and energy legislation. This month the Congressional Budget Office scored their bill and said that it would cut the deficit by $19 billion over the next decade via cap and trade revenue. This bill calls for increased off shore drilling as well as many of the programs in the ACES bill. It is slightly more lenient in terms of a renewable energy procurement, requiring only 15 percent of energy produced in the US come from renewable sources by 2020, as opposed to the 20 percent in the House ACES bill.  However,  the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions mirror that of ACES- a 42 percent reduction by 2030.

Once the Senate gets around to passing its own version of climate legislation, it will have to be rectified with the House's ACES bill. Time will tell whether the comprised legislation has enough teeth in it to put a dent in carbon offsets,  reduce climate change and accelerate our path to a cleaner energy economy. At that point some may argue the bill isn't worth President Obama's signature. Then again others might be happy with the incremental improvements we get.