Senate bill proposes 20 percent cut in greenhouse emissions

The Senate looks ready to pass a climate bill with deeper cuts than those proposed in the House version. The new energy and climate legislation will seek a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

Co-sponsors Sen. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) will announce the bill on Wednesday according to congressional sources. The proposal comes after countries like Japan and China,at the G-20 conference, suggested they were willing to make deep cuts of their own .

Reduction of greenhouse emissions is not necessarily a negative for the economy as many suggest. Indeed, so long as an equally vigorous effort is directed at developing cleaner and more sustainable energy sources, the shift can be economically beneficial instead.

One controversial feature of the Senate bill is the inclusion of incentives for new nuclear power plant building. This concession will not likely please a good portion of green energy activists who believe that nuclear power, while not a carbon-emitting technology, is still not "clean" or sustainable.


A lot of wheeling and dealing is expected to occur during the negotiations to reconcile the two versions.

Many environmentalists expressed satisfaction with the Senate proposal ahead of climate hange talks schedule two months from now in Copenhagen, Denmark.