Safe Climate Act
HR 1590
The Safe Climate Act has a strong emissions reduction target, requiring a gradual reduction of U.S. global warming emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.To help achieve these reductions, the bill calls for a greater reliance on clean, renewable energy sources, improved energy efficiency, and clean cars--solutions that will have far-reaching positive benefits, such as reducing air pollution, creating new jobs, and reducing our dependence on oil. The bill also provides companies flexibility in meeting the pollution-reduction goals by mandating the creation of a “cap-and-trade” program.
The Safe Climate Act includes the following components:
- Renewable Electricity Standard: The bill directs the Department of Energy (DOE) to set national standards requiring 20 percent of electricity to be generated from renewable energy sources—like wind and solar—by 2020.
- Energy Efficiency Standard: The bill directs the DOE to establish national standards requiring utilities to achieve gradually increasing electricity savings each year through 2020 through by making efficiency improvements at customer facilities.
- Clean Cars Standard: The bill directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set standards for reducing global warming pollution from vehicles that are at least as stringent as the current California standards. The EPA must tighten these standards in 2014 and every five years thereafter.
- Cap-and-Trade Program: The bill directs the EPA to set a cap on global warming emissions from the largest polluters and allow the polluters to meet the cap by buying and selling emissions allowances. Specifically:
- Allowances are distributed according to a plan developed by the president, with an opportunity for Congress to ratify or modify the plan.
- Proceeds from auctioning allowances are deposited in a newly created “Climate Reinvestment Fund.”
- Revenues in the fund are dedicated to maximizing the public benefit and promoting economic growth, including: compensating consumers for any energy cost increases; supporting research and development of technologies to avoid, reduce, or store global warming pollution; providing transition assistance for affected workers and regions; supporting the role of forests and agriculture in global warming pollution reductions; and providing and protecting against harm from climate change, such as safeguarding water supplies, protecting against hurricanes, drought, wildfires and erosion, and mitigating harm to fish and wildlife habitat.
- Periodic Scientific Review: The bill directs the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to review and report, every five years, our progress in avoiding dangerous interference with the climate system from human sources. If the NAS finds that dangerous global warming is likely, it must identify the reductions needed and recommend additional national and Intergovernmental actions to achieve the reductions.
