Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to invoke cloture on an amendment that caps carbon emissions starting in 2012 and creates funds for programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Highlights:

• Starts to cap carbon emissions at 5,775 million units in 2012 and reduces that amount by 70 percent to 1,732 million units by 2050 (Sec. 201).

• Establishes a Greenhouse Gas Registry to monitor emissions in the U.S. that includes methods for avoiding the double-counting of emissions, protocols to prevent any avoidance of reporting requirements, and methods to verify and audit submitted data, and establishes consistent policies for calculating carbon content and greenhouse gas emissions for each type of fossil fuel reported (Sec. 102).

• Establishes a market for carbon emission allowances that provides holders with the ability to freely trade, transfer, or sell allowances (Secs. 401, 402, 411, 412).

• Allows owners or operators of entities that fall under the emissions caps to borrow up to 15 percent of their emissions allowances from the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Sec. 511).

• Requires the Administrator of the EPA to hold an annual carbon emission allowance cost-containment auction from 2012-2027 that is separate from other emission auctions and limits prices to $22-$30 per allowance for 2012 with readjusted prices each subsequent year (Secs. 522, 523, 526).

• Requires states that rank in the top 20 for annual usage of home heating oil to use at least 5 percent of the state's emission allowances to prevent consumers from suffering hardship due to increases in home heating oil prices (Sec. 614).

• Allows the Climate Change Technology Board to auction a percentage of emissions allowances to fund awards to pay up to 30 percent of manufacturer costs for reequipping, expanding, or establishing manufacturing facilities in the U.S. that produce qualifying advanced technology vehicles, qualifying components, or engineering integration of qualifying vehicles and components (Sec. 1115).

• Establishes the Efficient Buildings Grant Program to provide grants to owners of buildings that are newly constructed highly efficient buildings with a minimum score of 75 from the Energy Star program or to owners of existing buildings that have been renovated to increase efficiency by 30 points or more until 2012 when emissions allowances start being distributed to reward construction or improvement of high-efficiency buildings (Secs. 111, 801, 802).

• Creates the Super-Efficient Equipment and Appliances Development Program to provide grants to retailers and distributors for increasing sales of high-efficiency building equipment, consumer electronics, and household appliances until 2012 when emissions allowances start being distributed to reward retailers and distributors for increasing sales of high-efficiency products (Secs. 112, 811, 812).

• Authorizes $2 billion in appropriations from fiscal years 2009-2011 for funding international capacity building programs that develop methods and programs to measure greenhouse gas emissions and reductions, assess technology and policies for greenhouse gas mitigations, and provide other forms of technical assistance; and requires the Administrator of the EPA to regulate the acceptance and issuance of carbon emission allowances to foreign countries or entities (Secs. 114, 202, 302, 321, 322 ).

• Allows the auction of a percentage of carbon emissions allowances to grant additional funding to programs to help people transition to a fuel efficient economy, create a tax initiative program to prevent higher energy costs, and fund EPA programs for habitat conservation, species protection, and non-emergency wildland fire suppression (Secs. 532, 535, 541-542, 561-562, 581-582, 585, 1202, 1211-1212, 1222, 1231, 1233-1236).

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text