The US House of Representatives has narrowly passed historic legislation to limit pollution blamed for global warming, handing US President Barack Obama a major hard-fought victory.
By a 219-212 margin, lawmakers voted on Friday for the first time in US history to limit heat-trapping carbon emissions and shift the US economy to cleaner energy in a move backers said will create jobs and restore Washington’s shaky leadership on climate change.
The pitched political battle over a central plank of Obama’s platform now shifts to the US Senate, where the prospects for action this year are uncertain and where outspoken foes of the House approach wield considerable clout.
The proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, create “green” jobs and wean the US economy away from oil imports.
JOBS OR NO JOBS?
The bitter, day-long debate pitted supporters — who argued the bill would put a shine back on the battered US economy — against foes, who described the measure’s more than 1,200 pages as a grim recipe for long unemployment lines.
“Just remember these four words for what this legislation means — jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Let’s vote for jobs,” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi exhorted her colleagues minutes before the vote.
Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner warned the bill would send energy costs skyrocketing and called it as “the biggest job-killing bill that has ever been on the floor of the House.”
The bill, the fruit of months of tough negotiations, would create a “cap and trade” system limiting overall pollution from large industrial sources and then allocating and selling pollution permits.
RENEWABLE RESOURCES
The Democrat-crafted bill would require utilities, by 2020, to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable resources — solar, wind, geothermal and biomass — and show annual energy savings of 5 percent from efficiency measures.
The EU plan calls for getting 20 percent of all electricity from renewable resources by 2020.
The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that implementing the legislation would cost US$80 to US$111 per US household per year, while the Congressional Budget Office says it would run about US$175.
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