The energy change train is a comin’, it’s a comin’!

Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill passed in the House Energy and Commerce Committee!!! This is a landmark bill which is well on its way to becoming one of the biggest shifts in energy and environmental politics since the Clean Air Act. The vote passed 33-25 last Thursday.

The bill sets up a cap-and-trade program on carbon emission and other Earth-warming gases with intentions of decreasing America’s carbon output by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.  It also sets efficiency standards on buildings and pushes for an increase in renewable energy.

The NYT rightly calls the bill “the most ambitious energy and global warming legislation ever debated in Congress.”

Alumna Kate Sheppard, who reports on politics for Grist.org, has the full story here. There are several ways in which representatives are trying to weaken or kill the bill, including Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who  attempted to remove the cap-and-trade portion, and increase production of oil, gas, coal, and nuclear power, Sheppard reports. Crazy, right?

The passing of this bill came just a week after Obama increased  Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards on cars. By 2016, fuel efficiency must be increased to 39 mpg, which is up from 27.5 mpg. As Nancy Pelosi said, “It’s been a very good week for new energy policy.”

The Waxman-Markey bill has a way to go, though. It now has to face off against clueless representatives, misled by climate-change skeptics and the oil/coal lobbyists. Also, as Joe Romm from Climate Progress points out, most represenatives don’t deal with global warming and complex bills like cap-and-trade. Not to mention, global warming is abstract and its effects are hard to pinpoint.

Green Alum!

The former president of ICES, Anjuli Kronheim, spent the past year working with Green Corp, a fellowship organization which trains college students and graduates how to engage in environmental advocacy. Anjuli worked with 1Sky in Iowa. When I spoke with her during her Ithaca visit about a week ago, she told me that being there during the election year was incredibly exciting, and she was able to swing some votes for Obama.

Here she is helping Iowa go green