Government

Carbon: Congress Looks at Emissions

By Cathy Cash, Pam Hunter McFarland, Tom Ichniowski

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

As ENR's former Washington Bureau Chief, Tom Ichniowski wrote about the federal government since the George H.W. Bush administration, and 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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