US Senate to consider climate-change amendment this week
Washington (Platts)--17Jun2005
The US Senate this week is expected to debate a climate-change amendment that would establish an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity beginning in 2010. The amendment will be offered by Sen Jeff Bingaman (Democrat-New Mexico), but committee staff said Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (Republican-New Mexico) may cosponsor the provision. Under the proposal, the Secretary of Energy would preside over an emissions trading program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 2.4% each year from 2010 through 2019. Allowances would be granted according to the emissions intensity target multiplied by the GDP for that year. About 90% will be allocated the first five years of the program, 5% auctioned, 3% given to make entities whole and 1% will be made available to those that make early emission reductions. The amendment also would direct the secretary to set up a procedure to distribute allowances to electricity generators to offset any expected loss of profits attributed to the program. In addition, the proposal contains a "safety valve price" of $7 per metric ton of carbon dioxide that increases 5% annually to provide industry certainty of how much the program would cost, committee staff said. Up to $50-bil in proceeds from the auctions and "safety valve purchases" would go to a fund of which 40% would be used to pay for the deployment of low-carbon technologies, 20% would be directed toward advanced coal and sequestration technologies and 25% would go to conserve coastal wetlands. The remaining 15% would be earmarked for variety of biomass systems and advanced technology for vehicle. This story was originally published in Platts Electricity Alert http://www.electricityalert.platts.com
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