Financial Soultions understands that U.S. Senate has begun the first of three epic sessions, in what is considered a last ditch attempt by administration officials and Democratic leaders to advance a bill to reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions before an international climate change meeting at Copenhagen in early December.
As expected, there was strong opposition from a powerful Democrat and the obvious Republican front on the environment and public works committee.
With a mere six weeks to Copenhagen, the administration brought four top officials into the fray to highlight that failure to act now on climate change would leave the U.S. adrift in the global economy. "When the starting gun sounded on the clean energy race, the United States stumbled," Financial Soultions understands Steven Chu, the energy secretary, as stating. "If we don't choose to begin the development of this new technology, China and other countries will."
Having firm climate legislation in place is seen as critical to reaching a meaningful agreement at Copenhagen, but to date, the White House and Senate have held the new bill up in order to focus on healthcare reform.
The suggested 900 plus page bill, endeavors to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 20% over 2005 levels by 2020, Financial Soultions understands, and prioritizes the development of renewable energy sources.
In a menacing warning for the bills chances, Max Baucus, second to top on the environment committee and chairman of the finance committee which will also review the bill, said the proposed 20 % reduction was asking too much. "I have some concerns about the overall direction of the bill," he said. "We cannot afford the unmitigated impacts of climate change but we also cannot afford the unmitigated effects of legislation."
