Kerry on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group 2 Report

[ProSense]

9. Why hasn't the Boxer-Sanders climate bill gotten more attention?

"'Unless we act dramatically and quickly' ... ain't gonna happen. Next."

Next: keep complaining.

Sanders, Boxer Propose Climate Change Bills

Thursday, February 14, 2013

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 – Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today introduced comprehensive legislation on climate change.

Boxer is chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Sanders sits on the environment committee and also is a member of the Senate energy committee.

Under the legislation, a fee on carbon pollution emissions would fund historic investments in energy efficiency and sustainable energy technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass. The proposal also would provide rebates to consumers to offset any efforts by oil, coal or gas companies to raise prices.

“The leading scientists in the world who study climate change now tell us that their projections in the past were wrong; that, in fact, the crisis facing our planet is much more serious than they had previously believed,” Sanders told a news conference in the Senate environment committee hearing room. To read his full statement, click here.

The proposal was drafted as two measures, the Climate Protection Act and the Sustainable Energy Act. For a summary, click here.

Flanking Sanders and Boxer at the news conference were environmental and consumer leaders including Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org; Mike Brune, executive director of Sierra Club; Tara McGuiness, executive director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund; Tyson Slocum, Public Citizen’s energy director; and Meg Power of the National Community Action Foundation.

“Sens. Sanders and Boxer actually understand the depth of the climate problem we face. We are awfully grateful to them for starting us down the legislative path that could reverse our disastrous course. We hope and trust that they won't have to be a lone voice,” said McKibben, one day after his arrest at a White House protest on a controversial oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

“Climate disruption is one of the most pressing challenges of our time and we must move forward with solutions on all fronts. While all eyes are on President Obama’s pending actions to cut carbon emissions from power plants, halt risky drilling in America's arctic, and reject the dirty and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline, we need champions in the Senate like Bernie Sanders and Barbara Boxer pushing strong, comprehensive climate solutions that can double down on these critical administrative actions,” added Brune.

“Pricing carbon is an important tool to address climate change, and this legislation ensures that working families aren’t penalized by dedicating 3/5 of revenues to a per-capita family refund. This will protect families at the same time we seek to protect the climate,” said Slocum, Public Citizen’s energy program director.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-boxer-propose-climate-change-bills

The comprehensive bill:

Climate Protection Act
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113s332is/pdf/BILLS-113s332is.pdf

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/021413-2pager.pdf

Via Daily Kos:

<...>

The legislation comes in two bills. The Sustainable Energy Act—designed to cut a long list of subsidies and tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry and extend tax credits for production of renewable energy from solar, wind and geothermal sources. The renewable credits now expire in 2014. The Sanders-Boxer proposal would extend them through 2021. That would give investors more confidence and help long-range planning that is now hampered by the fact the credits expire every two or three years.

...a condensation of all the measures in the Climate Protection Act.

• Price Carbon. To help reduce current carbon 80 percent by 2050, impose a carbon fee of $20 per ton or carbon or methane equivalent, rising at 5.6 percent a year for 10 years. This would apply to the 2,869 largest polluters (oil refineries, coal mines, point of importation) covering about 85 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions

• Family Clean Energy Rebate Program. With 60 percent of the carbon fee revenue, the program would use the Alaskan model of an oil dividend to provide a monthly rebate to every U.S. resident. "This is the most progressive way to ensure that if fossil fuel companies jack up prices, consumers and families can offset cost increase on fuel and electricity, according to data from the Congressional Research Service."

• Protect Communities from Fracking. So that the carbon fee does not harm communities due to increased production of natural gas, end the exemption for fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act

• Ensure Fair Trade and International Cooperation

• Pay Down $300 billion of the national debt from carbon fee revenue over 10 years.

• Invest in Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Energy. With some of the revenue raised from the carbon fee, invest in efficiency and energy technologies that will "reduce emissions, create jobs, and position America as a clean-tech leader." Included in this:

° weatherizing one million residences a year, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and saving households hundreds of dollars annually;

° tripling the budget of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy in research and development;

° creating the "Sustainable Technologies Finance Program" that would, working through public-private partnerships, leverage $500 billion for investments in wind, solar, geothermal, advanced biomass and biofuels, ocean and tidal energy, hydroipower, advanced transportation projects, and energy efficiency technologies

° funding $1 billion annually in training and transition programs to move American workers into clean-energy jobs

While the legislation will, as noted, no doubt encounter serious opposition in the House and Senate, it is precisely the kind of approach that is needed. Waiting to introduce it at a time when it has a better chance of passing makes no sense. Delay is just another form of denial. Americans need to know what progressives will back when they do have the political clout to deliver. Just explaining what we would do can help gain the votes to give us that clout.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/14/1187163/-Sanders-Boxer-climate-protection-bill-includes-carbon-fee-for-nearly-3-000-top-fossil-fuel-polluters

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022374998