Senate Climate Bill Revealed: A Quick Guide

Senate Climate Bill Revealed: A Quick Guide:

The Senate climate bill, called the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, just made its debut today. There are still pieces deliberately left out of the bill that will be subject to Senate debate, and of course, time will need to be taken to properly analyze the 800-page bill (hey, at least it's shorter than Waxman-Markey's 1300-pager). But here's a first look--a rundown of its pros and cons...

One major difference in the Senate bill is it includes incentives for more nuclear power--a measure included perhaps to draw more Republicans, who've long said they want to see more nuclear power included, to the bargaining table.

Carbon offsets, one of the more dubious components of the climate bill, are now more affordable and easier to purchase, in what appears to be a concession to conservatives and heavy industry groups. There's also more faith and funding put into carbon sequestration, a technology that's still years away, but acts as a sign of good faith to the powerful coal industry.

But all the differences aren't negative--in fact, many seem to be drastic improvements:

The Senate bill leaves the EPA in the game--where the Waxman-Markey bill would remove the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases as a harmful pollutant, it's intact in Kerry-Boxer.

It also introduces a price collar on carbon, which has some climate policy experts thrilled. That basically means there's a limit to how cheap or how expensive carbon permits can be priced, which stabilizes costs and is good for industry. It also prevents the price from falling too low.

Sure some improvements but appeasing nuclear and coal industries?