Hearings on Proposed Climate Change Legislation

Hearings are being held  on the proposed draft House bill known as The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, or more informally as "cap-and-trade" legislation.

Energy and Environment Subcommittee chairman and a lead sponsor of the legislation, Ed Markey (D-Mass.), will lead the four days of joint hearings with the full House Energy and Commerce committee. Fifty-four witnesses will testify over the first three days of the hearings.

The fourth day will feature former Vice President Al Gore (D), along with former Sen. John Warner (R-VA). Gore and Warner are billed as providing a bipartisan view on the draft plan — both have embraced the concept of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through a cap-and-trade program. Sen. Warner sponsored a similar bill in the 110th Congress with Senate Environment and Public Works committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), which fell to a filibuster last summer.

In addition to Gore and Warner, three administration officials are slated to testify during the hearings: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

The House bill calls for greenhouse gas emissions reductions slightly more ambitious than targets proposed by President Barack Obama including:  reductions of 3 percent below 2005 levels by 2012; 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020; 42 percent below 2005 by 2030; and 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. While the bill rests heavily on a cap-and-trade scheme to reduce greenhouse gases, it does not address whether the permits in the trading system would be auctioned off or given away for free.

The bill also advocates a renewable energy portfolio standard of six percent by 2012, which would increase incrementally until 2025, when a quarter of electricity in the U.S. must be drawn from renewable sources. It would introduce a sweeping efficiency program of standards and investments targeting transportation, buildings and residences, as well as funding to slow global deforestation.

Many questions remain regarding the use of the funds garnered from the cap-and-trade program and if part of those revenues will be used to support transportation and other infrastructure projects. To date, no clear direction has been determined on how these funds will be disbursed.

The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) is working closely with members and key staff in the House and the Senate as Congress addresses the issue of climate change and analyzes the proposal for potential adverse impacts or opportunities that it may have for the aggregates industry. NSSGA supports disbursing some of the revenues from a cap-and-trade program to the Highway Trust Fund since many of the emission reductions will come from the transportation sector.