Bingaman Bill Sets Price Controls On Carbon For Industry - $12/Ton Limit - WP

[hatrack]

Gotta love those "free" market forces, huh?

EDIT

To secure industry support, the bill's primary authors -- senators Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico Democrat, and Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican -- set limits on the price of tradable emissions credits that industry would have to purchase if they overshoot their emission allowances.

That move incurred the ire of environmental groups, who said the "safety valve" provisions in the bill that sets an initial limit of $12 per ton on the price of emission credits will undermine greenhouse gas reductions. "No wonder some of the big coal burners are excited," said Frank O'Donnell at Clean Air Watch, an environmental group. "They could hit the jackpot with this." Dan Becker, global warming director at the Sierra Club, called the "safety valve" provision a "giant loophole" in the bill," which could create "a formula for inaction."

At a news conference, Bingaman and Specter were flanked by about a dozen union and utility officials -- including chief executives of American Electric Power, Duke Energy Corp., Edison International, Exelon Corp., PNM Resources, PPL Corp. and NRG Energy Inc.

Of all the myriad bills in Congress to address greenhouse gas emissions, "this one is real," said John Rowe, chief executive of Chicago-based Exelon, which operates a large fleet of nuclear reactors. "It sets aggressive goals, it builds real bridges to get to those goals."

EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/11/AR2007071101627.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. Bingaman has to tread carefully, Oil & Gas are the some of the biggest

employers around here.

[Nihil]

2. Good job it's only Republicans that are bought out by industry ...

... oh ...

:puke: