Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, announced that he is planning to draft a cap-and-trade bill that would distribute billions of dollars in pollution credits to U.S. industries for free. Power companies and other industrial companies are lobbying Congress to enact such a system, while environmental groups oppose this approach and instead believe businesses should compete for the credits.
Boucher said that he wants to give industry a chance to ease into a new domestic global warming policy. He said that "the best we can do is give the allowances to the emitters according to their needs." Boucher added that this "will be the least painful, most politically attractive way to do it."
Boucher's plan is in contrast to legislation being proposed by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA), who plan to include free credit distribution to industry for only half of the program's allowances and an auction for nearly one quarter of the credits. The Lieberman/Warner plan would make utilities purchase all of their credits through an auction by 2035.
When Congress passed the last major set of amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990, it chose free credit distribution over auctions. The acid rain program, which was a part of those amendments, has been successful in cutting air emissions.
Despite pressure from Democratic leaders to consider a cap-and-trade bill in the coming months, Boucher said that he may not be able to complete action if the House leadership holds conference negotiations on the separate "energy independence package". If this happens, the Committee staff to the House Energy and Commerce Committee would have to focus their attention on the energy conference negotiations, as opposed to any cap-and-trade legislation, which would delay his effort to move a climate bill this year.
Boucher's bill would cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, which is a goal proposed by many environmental groups and scientists. Boucher plans to release a variety of position papers on the issue over the next six weeks.