US Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) will unveil a new draft climate bill to the Senate with expansions to Waxman-Markey that they hope will reinvigorate the legislation and bring it to a vote before year’s end. Waxman-Markey passed the House before the summer break, but the legislation stalled in the Senate. The new additions to the bill will likely include cap-and-trade measures similar t o the House bill, but increase emissions reduction targets from Waxman-Markey’s 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 to 20% below.
“I hope what we’ve done is constructive and well-received,” Kerry told The New York Times last week. “I have no pretensions, and neither does Barbara, that this will be the final product. It is a starting point, a commitment, full-fledged, across party lines to do what we need to do to protect the planet for the next century.” (Source: Business Green, September 29, 2009)
Contact: Senator John Kerry, (202) 224-2742, kerry.senate.gov; Laura Schiller, Chief of Staff, Office of Senator Barbara Boxer, US Senate, (202) 224-3553, www.boxer.senate.gov