A climate bill, which would revolutionize the way the nation uses energy and cut industrial pollution deemed responsible for global warming, was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives Friday.
This major victory for President Barack Obama will force refiners, power plants and other businesses to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions.
The passing of such a controversial bill gives President Barack Obama and Democrats much to celebrate as a pivotal administration policy succeeds and gives Washington substantial leverage to bargain in international climate negotiations later this year. It is an historic bill as it marks the first vote by the U.S. Congress to mandate the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions.
"History was made here in the House of Representatives this evening," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said after the vote. "It's legislation that can take us into the future."
The climate change bill was voted through by 219-212 by the Democratic ruled House.
The vote was partisan, as were many this year, having only eight Republicans siding with the Democrats for the bill. Forty-four Democrats opposed the bill.
The seven-vote margin further emphasized the challenges the bill will face to be made law. It was difficult to get the law passed in the House, but the Senate will face even greater issues.
Many senators fear that their states will suffer far more than other states from increases in power prices. Senators were expected to try to write their own version but prospects for this year were uncertain.
But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said that any changes the Senate makes will probably ease hesitant lawmakers in the House when both chambers begin to reconcile differences in the two versions.
After the House vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hoped the Senate can pass a bill "this fall."
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Obama lauded the House for taking "historic action" and encouraged the Senate to act.
"It's a bold and necessary step that holds the promise of creating new industries and millions of new jobs, decreasing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil," Obama said.
Now that the House has acted, Obama will be able to boast substantial progress for the U.S. in contending with global warming after years of scrutiny from foreign countries saying that Washington is not contributing to the international effort.
The bill aims to cut greenhouse gases thought to contribute to global warming by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 and more than 80% by mid-century. By cutting emissions while trying to create a market for buying and selling the rights to emit such gases, it will make emitting such gases as carbon dioxide and methane expensive, which in turn will raise the cost of energy production.
The bill will be a major setback for the oil industry while the renewable energy, biofuels and other low-carbon energy sectors will greatly benefit. ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and the American Petroleum Industry strongly disapprove of the bill, saying it would greatly harm an industry that has been the cornerstone of the economy for nearly a century.
The crux of the 1,500-page bill is a "cap and trade" program designed to meet the emissions reductions by industry.
The plan would mean that the government would issue fewer pollution permits to companies, which could sell those permits to each other as needed.
Republicans argue that the bill will not be effective in improving the environment or an economy trying to get its head above the deep waters of recession.
House Republican leader John Boehner called the measure "the biggest job-killing bill that has ever been on the floor of the House of Representatives."
Representative Joe Barton, the senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee that played a key role in the bill, believes it would set unrealistic goals for reducing carbon pollution. "You would have to reduce emissions in the United States to the level that we had in 1910," Barton said.
They both forecast price increases for energy and other consumer goods and more U.S. jobs being shipped abroad as companies circumvent pollution-control requirements.
Democrats, on the other hand, say consumers would be protected from price hikes for the most part.
During House debate, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, the chief sponsor of the bill, said, "The scientists are telling us there's an overwhelming consensus ... global warming is real and it's moving very rapidly."
Massachusetts Representative Edward Markey, who wrote the bill with Waxman, added, "When it becomes law, and it will, for the first time in the history ... of our country we will put enforceable limits on global warming pollution."
Obama says the United States also has to work with developing countries to ensure that their "obligations are clear" on the fight against global warming.
China and the United States are the lead contributors of carbon pollution.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said in a statement, "Although this bill is not perfect, it is a significant step in the national fight against climate change and it puts the United States in a position of leadership in international climate negotiations that must produce a global solution to this global problem."
California is known for having the most aggressive plan to fight global warming in the United States.
Many major environmental groups gave enthusiastic support for the bill, but some said it needed to be fortified.
"This bill is the most important environmental and energy legislation in the history of our country," said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund.
Even though climate change is a global problem as it poses a major threat to polar ice caps and animal and plant species, a great amount of the debate in Congress focused on regional geography, setting Midwestern and Southern states that heavily rely on dirty coal against coastal areas that have a greater availability of clean energies.
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