The details of the Kerry-Boxer bill published today - the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act – are important, of course. Senator John Kerry’s website has a wealth of explanatory material, including a useful summary and the full text of the 821-page bill. The central features, as expected, are a 20 per cent carbon dioxide emissions cut by 2020, and a cap and trade scheme for emissions, rebadged as a “pollution reduction and investment” programme.
Arguably even more important, though, is the bill’s timing. If the Senate has passed, or come close to passing, a bill to cut carbon dioxide emissions by the time of the Copenhagen climate meeting in December – now just over two months away – the chances of success at that meeting will be greatly increased.
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