Senator Susan Collins was joined today by Senator Joe Lieberman in introducing legislation that represents one of the most comprehensive approaches ever to address our nation’s energy conservation issues, while working to protect our environment. The Collins-Lieberman “Energy Independence, Clean Air and Climate Security Act,” would provide an integrated approach to reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil, clean our air, and address climate change, all of which affect each other. The bill also helps protect American jobs by not providing a competitive edge to high-energy consuming nations like China. The Senate is slated to consider energy legislation as early as next week.
In a speech to the U.S. Senate, Senator Collins said, “This legislation takes an integrated approach that is much needed and long overdue if we are to address the inseparable issues that are crucial to our nation’s economy, security, and to the health of our people and planet.”
Senator Collins further said, “The choice is not between hobbling our nation’s economy and protecting our environment. This legislation is based upon the principle that the research, development, and implementation of new approaches to energy independence and environmental stewardship will provide a powerful new stimulus for our economy. All too often, we are confronted with proposals to address one issue that only aggravates the other. The integrated approach in this legislation will help us break through that impasse.”
Specifically, the Collins-Lieberman legislation aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions by implementing new standards for the transportation and electricity sectors of the economy, which together account for 73 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. It would enable the U.S. to reduce its dependence on foreign oil while also addressing climate change; it would reduce power plant emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020; it would immediately implement CAFÉ standards for automobiles; and the standards set forth in the bill would apply to all products sold in the U.S. regardless of where they are manufactured, thereby protecting American jobs by not providing competitive advantages to other nations.
Senator Collins explained that the legislation incorporates key provisions of other important legislation before the Senate, such as other CAFÉ standards bills, the Clean Power Act, and the Advanced Clean Fuels Act, all of which Senator Collins has cosponsored.
“Americans deserve to breathe clean air; pay reasonable gas and electric prices, live in a world with a stable climate future, and have the peace of mind that comes with secure energy supplies. The Collins-Lieberman Energy Independence, Clean Air, and Climate Security Act offers a comprehensive, integrated approach to these issues.”
A summary of the major provisions of the legislation is as follows:
- Authorizes $60 million for abrupt climate change research
- Increases fuel economy standards to automobiles to 35 miles per gallon by 2019 and 45 miles per gallon by 2030, while closing the SUV loophole.
- Indefinitely extend the tax credit, of up to $3,400, for consumers to purchase hybrid and lean-burn passenger vehicle to help consumers afford more fuel efficient cars.
- Promote the use of public transportation by subsidizing fares, encouraging companies to
subsidize fares, and authorizing funding to build energy-efficient and environmentally
friendly modes of transport like clean buses and light rail.
- Creates tax incentives for manufacturer to produce more energy-efficient vehicles.
- Requires EPA to develop fuel economy standards for heavy duty vehicles.
- Repeals the federal statute that preempts state law from establishing fuel economy standards for motor vehicles.
- Requires the Secretary of Energy to improve the fuel efficiency of federal fleets by 30%.
- Significantly increases the amount of advanced clean fuels in the nation’s fuel supply by requiring increasing volumes of fuels that have low greenhouse gas emissions and that are produced in an environmentally sound way.
- Cuts all four power plant pollutants over the next six years: The pollution that causes smog and asthma attacks (nitrogen oxides) would be cut by 75 percent from 1997 levels; the pollution that causes soot and early death (sulfur dioxide) would be cut by 75 percent below Phase II Acid Rain levels; toxic mercury emissions would be cut by 90 percent from 1999 levels; and emissions of carbon dioxide, which forms a heat-trapping blanket in the atmosphere that causes global warming, would be cut to 1990 levels.
- Addresses threats from global warming: Power plants are the largest source of U.S. global warming pollution, responsible for 40 percent of national carbon dioxide emissions. Similar to Senator Collins’ Clean Power Act, this provision seeks to return carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, to reduce global warming threats.
- Helps reduce Americans’ heat and electric bills by doubling the Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Program funding to help consumers save money on their energy bills by weatherizing their homes and by creative tax incentives for usage of alternative energy sources and energy saving appliances.
- Directs the Department of Energy to establish an energy efficiency resource standard (EERS). Electricity and natural gas suppliers would be required to achieve an annual performance standard for peak demand reduction.
· Requires utilities to generate a certain percentage of their electricity from clean, renewable energy sources. This percentage would start at 1% in 2008, and then rise every two years until it reaches 20% in 2020.
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