#35 Fixing the US

September 24, 2009
by phil
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If the Waxman-Markey climate bill goes unchanged through the Senate, it could make an adequate and fair global deal on climate change impossible. The bill would allow new coal-fired power plants to be built up until 2020. It would also strip the Environmental Protection Agency of their existing authority to regulate coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act. It would replace this direct regulation with the widely-discredited Cap & Trade system. It has a very low level of ambition.

As 125 civil society groups from around the globe write to President Obama asking for US leadership on climate change, we chew over options for enhanced US action with our guest Daphne Wysham, presenter of Earthbeat Radio and founder and director of the Sustainable Energy & Economy Network.

UPDATE: Since this show has been broadcast, the Senate’s version of the Waxman-Markey bill has been released (30 Sept) and Friends of the Earth US have done a good potted analysis of why they can’t support it. On the plus side, it does reintroduce EPA’s authority to regulate coal plants.

Should the US Scrap the Waxman-Markey Bill? – Phil England, The Ecologist, 8 October 2009

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