This past Friday three of our members (Hilary Staver, Matt Dernoga and Ethan Cowan along with MarylandPirg representative David Bransfield) held a lobby meeting in Washington, DC with Senator Ben Cardin’s aid on energy issues, Mr. Josh Klein. The discussion was centered on the development of the Senate version of the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act passed by the House over the summer. We were able to both learn more about Senator Cardin’s stance on various aspects of the bill and bring attention to some potential improvements proffered by other members of the Senate. Happily, Senator Cardin continues to be a reliable advocate for a strong Senate cap-and-trade bill. Mr. Klein informed us that Senator Cardin’s previously expressed goal of tightening the 2020 emissions target to 20% below 2005 levels instead of the 17% set the in the ACES bill is still in place. This is in part because he wants to make the initial target as strong as possible in case it has to be lowered in order to secure the necessary sixty votes to overcome an expected filibuster once the bill reaches the Senate floor. With regards to the allocation of carbon permits, we learned that Senator Cardin is hoping to distribute a larger portion of them through auctions than the initial 15% found in the ACES bill. He has also cosponsored a potential clause in the Senate bill, the Clean, Low-Emission, Affordable New Transportation Efficiency Act (aka CLEAN TEA), that would auction 10% of the permits and use the revenue to set up a fund for new public and/or low-emission transportation projects around the nation. According to Mr. Klein, this amendment is still on the table and could well end up, at the least, in the version of the bill that passes out of the Committee on Environment and Public Works of which Senator Cardin is a member. On the economic side, we also discussed a provision included in the ACES bill called the Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology (IMPACT) Act. This provision would set up a $30 billion revolving loan fund to assist American manufacturing companies who want to either switch to producing clean energy technology or simply make their existing operations more energy efficient. Mr. Klein was unable to confirm whether a similar provision had been introduced for the Senate version of the cap-and-trade bill, but showed interest in the subject and promised to pursue it further. Lastly, we learned that Senator Cardin has cosponsored the Udall Amendment to the latest version of the Renewable Energy Standard, which calls for 25% of the nations electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025. This would greatly strengthen the Standard, which was only 20% renewables by 2025 with a 5% efficiency reduction option included when the House version was passed as part of the ACES bill over the summer. Overall Senator Cardin continues to be a champion for clean energy and the environment. Mr. Klein seemed happy to meet with us, and we were able to share with him an overview of UMD for Clean Energy’s planned local campaign for the semester. At present the cap-and-trade bill has not yet been introduced to the Committee on Environment and Public Works, but once it has passed through the committee and onto the Senate floor, we plan to arrange a similar meeting with Senator Barbara Mikulski’s office to encourage her to support strong cap-and-trade legislation as well. Hilary Staver Political Liaison CommentsLeave a Reply |  AuthorUMD for Clean Energy is a student activist group at the University of Maryland. In the past, they have successfully petitioned the university and University System of Maryland Board of Regents to commit to carbon neutrality by 2050. This past spring, they were successful in collaborating with statewide environmental groups to pass the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, which sets the strongest short-term emissions reduction target in the nation – 25 percent reductions from 2006 levels by 2020. The group has also recently engaged at the federal level, lobbying for climate legislation which passed the House of Representatives this past June and will be considered by the Senate in the fall. ArchivesMarch 2010 Categories |
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