Pollution bill may win House approval Friday

WASHINGTON — A Democrat who helped draft the climate bill aimed at limiting greenhouse gases and improving the nation's energy efficiency predicted Wednesday that the legislation would be approved by the House on Friday.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said the measure would lead to a "green revolution," reduce global-warming pollution, reduce oil imports, create jobs in clean-energy companies and protect consumers from higher prices and industries from the effects of competition from overseas.

"On Friday we are going to pass the most important energy and environment bill in history," Markey said at a rally to drum up support.

The rally, outside the Capitol building, drew Democratic leaders and environmental, labor and religious groups to press members of the House to vote for the legislation.

Not everyone is happy with the proposed climate law, however.

Republicans complain that a key component of the bill — a mechanism to trade carbon-emission permits and collect revenue to offset the higher cost of fossil fuels — was just another form of tax.

The bill is designed to set up sweeping changes in the production and use of energy in the United States into the middle of the century. It is expected to lead to increases in the price of fossil fuels, but also creates incentives for cleaner alternatives. Some money from sales of permits for each ton of emissions would be distributed to regulated utilities that would be obligated to hold down ratepayers' bills. Some revenue would go to industry.

Two recent reports, by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said the costs to consumers would be minimal. The EPA analysis said that in 2020, the average household would pay 7 percent less for household energy because efficiency measures would reduce demand. The CBO said consumers could expect to see costs rise by $175 a year and that poor households would save $40 a year.

Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the bill would provide a "clean energy future" for the next generation and boost the U.S. steel industry with jobs for new products such as wind turbines.

" 'Drill, baby, drill,' is 'Flintstones' technology. This is about the future technology and it's technology that's going to be kept here in the United States of America," Doyle said.

Republicans, with few exceptions, oppose the bill.

Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, a member of the House Republican leadership, said it would bring "the largest tax increase in the country's history."

Cantor on Wednesday cited a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study that Republicans said shows the bill would cost $3,100 per household. The author of the study said earlier that the GOP misinterpreted the study to derive that amount.

Another opponent of the legislation, the American Petroleum Institute, said the recent CBO study, which found the average household would pay $175 per year if the bill passed, was too rosy. It didn't include gasoline-price increases that could cost $800 per family per year, institute President Jack Gerard said.

A coalition of major environmental groups, including the National Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club, urged members of Congress to pass the bill, strengthen its environmental protections and defeat amendments that opponents are expected to offer to weaken it Friday before the final vote.

If it passes the House on Friday, the bill would still be far from becoming law. There are many unknowns ahead, including how the Senate would shape a version of the legislation, and whether it would pass.