An energy bill the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on this week will include a $21 billion tax package, offering incentives to renewable sources of energy at the expense of oil companies.
The bill raises fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles by 40 percent by 2020, establishes a requirement for renewable energy sources to account for 15 percent of all power, and could raise by almost five times a mandate for production of renewable fuels such as ethanol by 2022.
The measure "strengthens and extends existing renewable energy tax credits, including solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, hydro, landfill gas and trash combustion, while creating new incentives for use and production of renewable energy,'' according to a summary of the measure from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office....MORE
And(The folks at Bloomberg are pros. Using "Emissions" rather than "pollution" takes some of the political spin out of the discussion):
U.S. EPA Urged to Regulate Airline Emissions to Combat Warming
Airlines contribute 3 percent of U.S. carbon emissions linked to global warming and should be regulated by the federal government, California and New York City said in a petition to the Bush administration.
California and New York partnered with Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico and Pennsylvania on a petition released today calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate aircraft emissions, which account for 12 percent of national transportation-industry emissions. U.S. aircraft emissions are expected to increase by 60 percent by 2025, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
The petition comes as delegates, lawmakers and scientists from 187 countries have gathered in Bali, Indonesia, to discuss a global warming treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has reported that greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, power plants and factories contribute to global warming.
``Even though it's not a giant portion of the greenhouse gases we're dealing with, when you look at how urgent a problem global warming is, it's important that we get all sectors of the economy contributing to solutions,'' said Andrea Treece, staff attorney for Center for Biological Diversity, one of four environmental groups filing a separate petition to EPA....MORE
