American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009

Bill: 111-hr-2998
Sponsor: Rep. Waxman, Henry A. [D-CA-30]
Introduced: 2009-06-23 in the House
Policy area: Environmental Protection
Subjects: Accounting and auditing
Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Advanced technology and technological innovations
Advisory bodies
Agricultural conservation and pollution
Agricultural practices and innovations
Air quality
Alternative and renewable resources
Arctic Ocean
Arctic and polar regions
Atmospheric science and weather
Climate change and greenhouse gases
Coal
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Competitiveness, trade promotion, trade deficits
Computer security and identity theft
Congressional oversight
Consumer affairs
Department of Commerce
Department of Energy
Department of Transportation
Ecology
Economic development
Education programs funding
Electric power generation and transmission
Employment and training programs
Endangered and threatened species
Energy assistance for the poor and aged
Energy efficiency and conservation
Energy research
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Environmental assessment, monitoring, research
Environmental health
Environmental regulatory procedures
Environmental technology
Executive agency funding and structure
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Fishes
Foreign aid and international relief
Forests, forestry, trees
Fraud offenses and financial crimes
Government information and archives
Government lending and loan guarantees
Government studies and investigations
Government trust funds
Housing and community development funding
Housing industry and standards
Hybrid, electric, and advanced technology vehicles
Income tax credits
Indian lands and resources rights
International organizations and cooperation
Lighting and heating
Lighting, heating, cooling
Manufacturing
Marine and coastal resources, fisheries
Medicare
Motor carriers
Motor vehicles
Multilateral development programs
Natural disasters
Nuclear power
Oil and gas
Pedestrians and bicycling
Performance measurement
Poverty and welfare assistance
Public contracts and procurement
Public transit
Public utilities and utility rates
Public-private cooperation
Research administration and funding
Securities
Social security and elderly assistance
State and local government operations
Teaching, teachers, curricula
Technology transfer and commercialization
Transportation programs funding
Unemployment
Vocational and technical education
Water quality
Wilderness and natural areas, wildlife refuges, wild rivers, habitats
Wildlife conservation and habitat protection

Summary:
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: 
American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 - Amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a combined efficiency and renewable electricity standard that requires specified retail electricity suppliers to supply an increasing percentage of their demand from a combination of energy efficiency savings and renewable energy (6% in 2012, 9.5% in 2014, 13% in 2016, 16.5% in 2018, and 20% in 2021-2039). Provides for issuing, trading, banking, retiring, and verifying renewable electricity credits.
 
Sets forth provisions concerning: (1) certifying and permitting geologic sequestration; (2) regulating sequestration wells; (3) establishing performance standards for new coal-fired power plants; (4) developing plug-in electric drive and advanced technology vehicles and infrastructure for such vehicles; (5) assessing and supporting smart grid technology and peak demand reduction goals and related requirements; (6) planning for future transmission of electricity, including electricity grid planning that facilitates the deployment of zero-carbon energy sources; (7) expanding the definition of &quot;renewable biomass&quot; for purposes of the renewable fuel standard; (8) advancing or encouraging clean, renewable, alternative, innovative and/or efficient energy technology, projects, research and/or practices; (9) establishing and/or revising efficiency standards for industrial equipment, lighting, appliances, electric motors, buildings, and consumer products; (10) creating water use efficiency programs; (11) establishing rebate programs, including rebates for the replacement of manufactured homes owned by low-income families and rebates to reimburse low-income households for their estimated loss in purchasing power resulting from the Safe Climate Act provisions of this Act; (12) replacing wood or pellet stoves that do not meet specified performance standards; (13) establishing transportation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals and standards; and (14) reducing emissions of black carbon. 
 
Safe Climate Act - Amends the Clean Air Act (CAA) to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate regulations to: (1) cap and reduce GHG emissions, annually, so that GHG emissions from capped sources are reduced to 97% of 2005 levels by 2012, 83% by 2020, 58% by 2030, and 17% by 2050; and (2) establish a federal GHG registry. Designates carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) from a chemical manufacturing process at an industrial stationary source, perfluorocarbons, and nitrogen trifluoride as GHGs.
 
Requires EPA to establish specified emission allowances (tonnage limits) for: (1) each of 2012-2049; and (2) 2050 and thereafter. Provides for the establishment and distribution of compensatory allowances for the destruction and conversionary use of fluorinated gases and the nonemissive use of petroleum-based or coal-based liquid or gaseous fuel, petroleum coke, natural gas liquid, or natural gas as a feedstock. Prohibits any person from manufacturing, introducing into interstate commerce, or emitting a significant quantity of certain fluorinated gas that is generated as a byproduct during the production or use of another fluorinated gas.
 
Phases in prohibitions against covered entities (including electricity sources, fuel producers and importers, industrial gas producers and importers, geological sequestration sites, industrial stationary sources, industrial fossil fuel-fired combustion devices, natural gas local distribution companies, nitrogen trifluoride sources, algae-based fuels, and fugitive emissions) exceeding allowable emission levels. Requires covered entities to demonstrate compliance through: (1) holding emission allowances at least as great as attributable emissions; or (2) using offset credits. 
 
Provides for trading, banking and borrowing, auctioning, selling, exchanging, transferring, holding, or retiring emission allowances. Sets forth provisions governing the disposition of emission allowances, including giving: (1) proceeds from auctions of allocations to benefit energy consumers and low income consumers and to address the impacts of climate change; and (2) free allocations to energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries, local distribution companies, merchant coal units, generators, and refineries.
 
Requires EPA to promulgate regulations to phase down the consumption of, and regulate the production of, HFCs. Specifies consumption allowances for: (1) each of 2012-2032; and (2) 2033 and thereafter. Provides for: (1) the distribution, auction, banking, exchange, and international transfer of such allowances; and (2) the issuance of offset credits for the destruction of chlorofluorocarbons.
 
Requires: (1) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to promulgate regulations for the establishment, operation, and oversight of markets for regulated allowances; and (2) the President to establish an interagency working group on carbon market oversight. 
 
Provides for transactions in derivatives that involve energy commodities. Gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) jurisdiction over the establishment, operations, and oversight of markets for regulated allowance derivatives. Amends the Natural Gas Act and the Natural Gas Policy Act to give FERC cease-and-desist authority to prevent violations of such Acts.
 
Global Change Research and Data Management Act of 2009 - Requires the President to establish: (1) the United States Global Change Research Program to improve understanding of climate change; and (2) a Global Change Research Information Exchange.
 
National Climate Service Act of 2009 - Provides for the establishment of a National Climate Service within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
 
Requires the Secretary of State to establish an International Climate Change Adaptation Program.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2009-07-23
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
action_date: 2009-06-24
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
action_date: 2009-06-24
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.
action_date: 2009-06-24
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.
action_date: 2009-06-24
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management.
action_date: 2009-06-24
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Aviation.
action_date: 2009-06-24
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Judiciary
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Oversight and Government Reform
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Agriculture
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Natural Resources
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Transportation and Infrastructure
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Science and Technology
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Education and Labor
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Financial Services
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Ways and Means
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Foreign Affairs
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, Ways and Means, Financial Services, Education and Labor, Science and Technology, Transportation and Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Agriculture, Oversight and Government Reform, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Referred to House Energy and Commerce
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2009-06-23
text: Introduced in House