Waxman: US climate bill to pass this year

Australia may have just postponed plans for its cap-and-trade scheme, but the US remains on track to approve proposals for its own emission trading scheme by the end of this year, according to one of the architects of the controversial Waxman-Markey climate bill.

US House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman predicted yesterday that a climate bill would be passed this year after president Barack Obama personally called on Democrat legislators to accelerate efforts to finalise the proposed legislation.

According to Bloomberg reports, Waxman said that the president wanted the legislation "to move as quickly as possible". He added: "We said we're moving it this year and he didn't object."

Obama's aides had previously tried to dampen expectations that legislation enabling a nationwide cap-and-trade scheme would pass this year, arguing that Republican opposition would make it difficult to fast track the bill.

The bill's finer details also need to be thrashed out given that the current draft fails to include proposals on how pollution permits should be distributed under a cap-and-trade scheme, or how many should be sold at auction.

But Waxman insisted that rapid progress is being made to ensure that emission allowances are allocated in a way that both protects taxpayers and limits the impact of climate change.

The ability to push through a bill this year is regarded as a major test of the president's high-profile commitment to climate change. Green groups argue that having legislation in place ahead of the UN's December climate change summit in Copenhagen will significantly increase the chances of a global deal being reached.

Waxman's comments came as a new survey of over 1,000 people commissioned by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal revealed that almost 60 per cent half of respondents approve of Obama's plans. These are to levy "a fee to companies that emit greenhouse gases, which might result in higher utility bills", and then use the money to "provide tax cuts for middle-income Americans ".

In related news, US senators last week set out bipartisan proposals for a new independent agency designed to manage federal investments in clean energy projects.

The bill was introduced by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Jeff Bingaman and ranking member Lisa Murkowski, and sets out proposals for a specific Clean Energy Deployment Administration to be set up within the Department of Energy.

The senators said the new agency would help the Department of Energy deal with the backlog of loan guarantee applications it is currently battling with, while providing clean tech start-ups with easier access to financial support.

"New clean energy technologies will be needed to reduce America's reliance on fossil fuels and lower the amount of greenhouse gases that our nation emits every day," said Democrat Bingaman, in a statement. "This legislation is a bipartisan effort to position the US to lead the development and deployment of clean energy technologies by ensuring that commercial financing for these technologies is readily available for the future."