U.S. Draft Bill Pushes for Clean Energy
Just yesterday, house members Henry Waxman and Ed Markey are promoting a draft bill that follows after similar Massachusetts legislature to reduce global warming as well as increasing support for renewable energy. The major component of this bill is to set clean energy standards for America like so many other countries have. There will be a requirement that 25% of all of America’s energy come from renewable energy by the year 2025. On top of that, there will be a clause to also reduce the amount of carbon emissions by 30% of their current levels by 2020. Environmental Massachusetts does have some concerns with the bill with the major one being carbon offsets. They believe that carbon offsets do not provide as certain emission reductions as well as large subsidies. The organization likes the intent of the bill and applauds the efforts of the house members for taking this large initiative.
These efforts really make me feel great about the clean energy efforts of our government. Even though this is just a draft bill and has yet to be passed by Congress, it still shows that there are politicians pushing for more environmentally friendly energy sources. This bill could not only help our environment, but help us get out of the current environmental mess we are in. Tons of new jobs would be created from a bill such as this because of the need to manufacturer as well as maintain the equipment. I would also hope that energy prices would eventually drop with increases in technology to harness the renewable energy. There will probably never be any major breakthroughs in utilizing coal as an energy source in the near future, while there is so much potential with sources of energy like wind, geothermal and solar. I just hope Congress opens their eyes and sees all the positives of a bill such as this.
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