*[Enwl-eng] Waxman Tries Again, On Carbon Tax Measure

[ENWLine]

*Could Waxman's New Bill Offer New Hope for a Carbon Tax?*

Posted by Tim McDonnell on Tuesday, March 12, 2013

It's been a few years now since Representatives Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and
Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) led an ambitious but doomed charge to get a
carbon-pricing bill through Congress.

But in the wake of President Obama's climate-centric State of the Union
and Inaugural addresses, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are
grinding out bills that would make polluters pay for their greenhouse
gas emissions. Last month, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.) announced plans to introduce a bill this spring to place
a $20-per-ton tax on CO2, a move they argue could raise $1.2 trillion
over the next decade. And today, Rep. Waxman, along with Senator Sheldon
Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), and
Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), hopped on the bandwagon with their own
draft carbon-pricing scheme. Waxman's legislation hasn't been formally
introduced into Congress, but is open for public feedback until April 12.

The two bills both aim to confront climate change by harnessing the
power of the free market, a spokesperson for Rep. Waxman said, but offer
different mechanisms for doing so. The Waxman bill would target power
plants, for example, while the Boxer bill would focus on "upstream"
emitters like coal mines and oil refineries. But both bills are likely
to undergo tweaks before being officially introduced.

The as-yet-unnamed Waxman bill would require the EPA and Treasury
Department to collaborate on assessing how much big polluters are
emitting, and levying an appropriate fee.

The exact price per ton of carbon pollution is still an open question
(the lawmakers are seeking public input on this and other issues), but
the draft bill purports to be based on the principle that "all revenue
generated by the carbon pollution fee should be returned the American
people." Options for this could include using the money to lower the
federal deficit, or helping the public shoulder higher energy costs.

Franz Matzner, a government affairs analyst for the Natural Resources
Defense Council, said despite the bad track record for past bills like
this, now isn't the time to be cynical.

"Waxman and the others have done exactly the right thing in putting this
bill out," he said, "and reminding Congress that there's important work
to be done on their end for climate change."



http://climatedesk.org/2013/03/could-waxmans-new-bill-offer-new-hope-for-a-carbon-tax/

*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational
purposes only. ***



From: "Yahoo Newsgroups" <vasi...@ramapo.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 22, 2013 3:15 PM
Subject: News: Waxman Tries Again, On Carbon Tax Measure


------------- * ENWL * ------------
Ecological North West Line * St. Petersburg, Russia
Independent Environmental Net Service: http://www.bellona.ru/enwl/
Russian: ENWL(discussions), ENWL-inf(FSU information), ENWL-misc(any topics)
English: ENWL-eng (world information)
en...@lew.spb.org, enwl...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org
Subscription, Moderator: vf...@lew.spb.org or en...@enw.net.ru
Archive: http://enwl.bellona.ru/pipermail/
and http://groups.google.com/group/enwl/
SEE ALSO: http://www.bellona.org (English)and http://www.bellona.ru
(Russian)
RSS: http://groups.google.ru/group/enwl/feeds?hl=ru
(C) Please refer to exclusive articles of ENWL
-------------------------------------
ONLY if your address is subscribed:
Enwl-eng mailing list
Enwl...@enwl.bellona.ru
http://enwl.bellona.ru/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/enwl-eng