The U.S. House is on the threshold of national climate change legislation

A HIGHLY anticipated vote in the U.S. House of Representatives today would endorse national climate-change legislation that creates a cap-and-trade mechanism to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.

At nearly 1,000 pages, the American Clean Energy and Security Act will not take the Senate by storm if it passes the House, but the policy direction is clear.

For all of the complexity and detail to be found in the legislation, the two key words are "national" and "cap."

Recent years have seen a flurry of regional interest and efforts to reduce global-warming pollution. In the absence of federal leadership, states have taken it upon themselves to deal with large corporate emitters, automobile emissions and parallel efforts to attract and sustain environmentally green employers and jobs.

These fragmented efforts were the frustrated response to not having a single, coherent policy for the entire country, or a definable response to international climate-change initiatives. Even sympathetic businesses could credibly lament facing a patchwork of regulations from the states, each with its own unique administrative requirements.

National legislation with goals and benchmarks, with universal application, not only points the country in the proper direction, but also it provides business and industry with predictable measurements and expectations.

Progress for the natural world and within administrative realms cannot occur without a limit. Having a cap sets a limit, a definable quantity of pollution that is allowable, and still make headway against climate change. Creation of a trading system for pollution credits is a pathway to reducing emissions and staying under the cap.

The United States has used a form of cap-and-trade for more than a dozen years to reduce the toxic effects of acid rain from coal-fired plants in the Midwest. This country can also learn from the traps and pratfalls of European experience.

The comprehensive bill before the House is more than cap-and-trade. Finally, the nation is taking a long-term view of alternative energy sources and energy efficiency in power generation, construction, appliances, recycling and transportation. For consumers, there is money and energy to be saved.