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Shea Gunther

Climate change bill passes House, headed to Senate

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a key piece of climate change legislation 219 - 212.
Fri, Jun 26 2009 at 1:58 PM EST
Read more: CLIMATE CHANGE

Photo credit: Flickr user Kevin Burkett
House Democrats won a close vote today and passed the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act after deals were struck with key conservative Democrats over farming offsets and CO2 allowances. The vote was mostly along party lines at 219 - 212, though 30 Democrats crossed over to vote against it.
 
The 1,200+ page bill will put limits on greenhouse gas emissions and create a shift to renewable energy and away from dirty polluting sources like coal. Greenhouse gas emissions would be cut by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and 80 by the end of the century.
 
Republicans have been freaking out all over themselves to paint the legislation as "the greatest tax increase in American history" despite the findings of the Congressional Budget Office finding the average costs per household to be just $175 per year.
 
The lowest income bracket (out of five) would actually see a benefit of $40 a year.
 
President Obama gave a great speech yesterday about the importance of passing the bill. Check it out:
 
 
The bill is now headed to the Senate where it's expected a contentious battle for passage.
 
 
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Comments(7)

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Posted By Samantha Shiffman - the CLEAN - Mon, Jun 29 2009 at 11:51 AM EST

What Now?

ACES has past and that is something that we must accept, but what I cannot accept is the mediocrity of the bill. A bill which many hail as a step in the right direction, is lacking in many areas. ACES fails to answer some of our most basic questions for the future of energy policy and sustainability.

1) Many supporters of ACES have argued "this is the best we can get given the circumstances" or that this bill "is a beginning." If so, the central question for community organizers is:.... More

Posted By John Locke - Mon, Jun 29 2009 at 6:53 AM EST

Do you really care about the planet?

Several points here, what is the real threat to the planet. It is rapid human growth that is being artificially inflated by third world countries. This bill will cause more starvation across the globe, like we saw last year when food riots broke out in places like Egypt. That was due to Corn-based ethanol and the price of gasoline. Ethanol was a fantasy, it costs more to produce than the power it provides. This is a joke, a really bad joke. It will not save the planet but give government the.... More

Posted By Anonymous - Fri, Jun 26 2009 at 6:14 PM EST

That was not the vote

The vote has not happened yet. The vote you are referring to is the test vote that happened this morning. It is on the House floor as I type.

Posted By Sam - Fri, Jun 26 2009 at 6:04 PM EST

Dude--I know it's Friday

But you really should wait to post this...

Posted By belliott - Fri, Jun 26 2009 at 5:50 PM EST

are you guys fortune tellers?

that vote was a prelimary committee vote... as of 549p they are still debating the bill on the floor...?

Posted By arts.fantasy - Fri, Jun 26 2009 at 5:25 PM EST

tax or solutions?

should we tax ppl or should we build sustainable widnley avaliable solutions?

why a household has to be taxed since a household has nothing to say about a coal powerplant ?

Posted By Anonymous - Fri, Jun 26 2009 at 5:02 PM EST

Now is not the time.

I know that we do have to head towards this goal, however, passing this bill at this time will unfortunately cost current industries billions more dollars on purchasing the technologies necessary to comply with this bill. This will, in turn, cause many more to lose jobs to compensate for the high price. I think that this bill is needed eventually, but lets wait until our nation is "on our feet" again and recovered from this already damaged economy before we take more jobs away.

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