Carbon: Congress Looks at Emissions

Congress is moving to draft legislation that would cap carbon dioxide emissions and create a carbon allowance trading program to help emitting industries comply.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) says he plans to complete a bill by Memorial Day with targets and deadlines for emission reductions. The bill could include energy-efficiency standards and require utilities to generate a specific portion of power with renewable energy sources. A House floor vote could come later this year.

In the Senate, Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) says she wants to take a deliberative approach to such legislation. “The idea is not to rush a bill, but to have a strategy to get this done,” she says.

Pam Hunter McFarland was a Senior Editor of ENR and her expertise was: Sourcebooks, Environment, Labor

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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