A compromise climate bill unveiled in the Senate Wednesday...
A compromise climate bill unveiled in the Senate Wednesday would create a “best-in-class appliance deployment” program under which bonuses would be paid to retailers and distributors of highly energy-efficient CE products and household appliances. The American Power Act bill introduced…
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by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., would create a climate protection fund from the proceeds of sale of carbon allowances. The bonuses would be paid from this fund. Among the goals of the “best-in-class” program is to reduce the use of substances that contribute to global warming, maximize energy savings, and reduce life cycle costs for consumers and promoting innovation, the measure says. CE and appliance makers and retailers would also get “bounties” for “replacement, retirement, and recycling” of inefficient and environmentally harmful products. It would also provide “premium awards” to manufacturers for “developing and providing new super-efficient, best-in-class products.” The Kerry-Lieberman proposal scales back energy efficiency provisions, raising costs to consumers, said the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The bill “misses out on a key opportunity to address the cost of curbing climate change by including little on energy efficiency - the first, best, and least-cost carbon-reduction opportunity,” the group said. The Kerry-Lieberman proposal does much less for energy efficiency than previous major climate change bills, including the one reported out by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, it said. CEA does not support the use of taxpayer money to promote sales of CE products, “especially when consumers are already making the right energy efficiency choices in the marketplace,” said Douglas Johnson, vice president of technology policy. “We believe the key driver of efficiency in our industry are innovation and market oriented programs such as Energy Star."