Waxman-Markey Bill to Halt Coal Plant Construction 3
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chair of the Oversight Committee, and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the global warming committee, today jointly introduced the Moratorium on Uncontrolled Power Plants Act of 2008 (H.R. 5575).
The bill, if enacted, would require any new coal plant constructed before the U.S. implemented a strong greenhouse gas emissions reduction program to have state-of-the-art carbon-capture-and-sequestration (CCS) technology.
From the bill text, the CCS technology would have to capture “not less than 85 percent of the total carbon dioxide produced by the unit on an annual average basis and permanently sequesters that carbon dioxide” and the emissions reduction program would have to require requires “immediate and significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across the economy and increases the reductions over time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.”
This target is considerably more stringent than that of Lieberman-Warner (S. 2191), which calls for an approximately 60% reduction below 1990 levels by 2050, though at the minimum of the IPCC-recommended 80-95% reduction (Box 13.7 in the Fourth Assessment Report, p. 776).
Update: This bill would implement one of Al Gore’s legislative recommendations.
FIRST Read Hot Flat and Crowded We need a totally new direction and it is going to start with bills like Waxman and Markey. We can no longer afford to think of our immediate needs and instead plan and implement for a future not dependent on dirty energy. we can only progress by leveling the playing field with petroleum and alternate energy. It’s al about pay now or pay later. Once we implement an Energy internet the costs will to go down as manufacturing improves. We do not have a choice here. This is a no brainer and it’s based on turning away from a foriegn dependant petro society, into an alternate high tech energy independant country that will lead the way for the world while creating a whole new list of jobs and putting the spark back into america pride. We took the wrong direction a hundred years or so ago when we opted for not for mass transportation. Now we need to bite the bullet and go the distance to make alternate energy a reality. America has had to sacrifice before and has come away the better for it. We need to do that again to regain our position in the world and to regain our pride in being americans. James Boulton Princeville Hawaii
Oh how nieive you are James. In the 4 billion years earth has been in existence the climate has has varied from GLACIAL PERIODS (ICE AGES) that last about 100,000 years to INTER-GLACIAL PERIODS that are warm which last about 25,000 years. The current “Holocene” inter-glacial we are in is about 15,000 years. The earth was 1 degree warmer 1000 years ago at the time of Wm the Conquerer. History backs this up as it is called the “Medeival Warm Period, then the earth cooled about 1250 AD. During the 1500’s & 1600’s the Thames River in England froze over, Theis called “The Little Ice Age.” Oh by the way “Sun Spot Activity was next to nil during the little ice age. Then the earth srarted to warm sleightly. Today the earth is about 1 degree cooler than the peak of the Medeival Warm Period, yet only 1 degree warmer from the depth of the Little ICe Age. Bottom line is climate change is caused by natural forces well beyound the ability of man kind. There is nothing we do that will ever signicantly alter the earth’s climate. This Waxman-Markey bill only serves politicians and big government, It will do anthing more than just that. Don’t get me wrong , I am all for “altrenative forms of energy, but the problem their is right now most of them are not economically feasable.
While the “Climate Change crowd” loudly assert that carbon dioxide from human activity causes warming, they have so far not even proven scientifically that a cause effect relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature is even possible much less which is the cause and which is the effect. Correlation is a necessary, but not suficient condition for a cause effect relationship to exist! There is a better chance to prove that carbon dioxide levels cause the US National Debt to rise. Waxman-Markey is the proof of this hypothesis. Really it isn’t the carbon dioxide, but rather the polititcal pandering to the special interests behind the waxman-Markey bill.
If Waxman-Markey becomes law, a lot of money is going to change hands with nothing really accomplished.
Alternative energy is a great idea, and some day it will be needed, but we don’t need it if it has to be force fed and uneconomical.