The Senate Dems' energy and climate bill debuts

The official name is "Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act." I though the American power act had to do with invading weak countries like Grenada, Panama, Iraq and Afghainistan. This must be some other kind of power? This has to do with fossil fuel, electricity and energy, not political power per se.

This new bill, propelled by fears among pols that the EPA will take a move before them, would establish mandatory nationwide limits on greenhouse gases. It calls for a 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions in the US by 2020.

<a href=" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-kerry/taking-control-of-our-ene_b_304882.htmlHere's Senator Kerry's (D-Mass) defense of the bill he is co-sponsoring. If you want to read the bill itself or a summary, here is link to leading sponsor, Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-CA) website.

Here are excerpts from her press statement on the bill: " This bill addresses major challenges of our generation: protecting our children and the earth from dangerous pollution; putting America back in control of our energy future; creating the policies that will lead to millions of new jobs; and through our example, inspiring similar actions around the world to avoid an unstable and dangerous future. "As Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I want to thank so many of my colleagues and their staffs, on and off the committee....We built on the successful House effort. Our bill has stronger targets in the short term and we have expanded our coalition in the business community. In our bill, the basic promise to consumers has been kept. The promise to regions that rely heavily on fossil fuels has been kept as well. "The first major part of the bill includes authorizations, all of which would be eligible for appropriations and some which are eligible for both appropriations and allowances. Some of these are enhanced from the Waxman bill; some are new. Here are some examples of these authorizations: Investments in clean natural gas, new transmission infrastructure, nuclear R&D and worker training, and green economic development; agricultural and forestry offset opportunities...Provisions to speed the transition to cleaner transportation, including investments in our transit systems, and incentives for efficient hybrid and electric cars...."