Recent Activity:

In June of 2009 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), H.R. 2454, which established a marked based cap-and-trade plan for greenhouse gases to address climate change.

In November of 2009 the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, S.1733, drafted by Senators Boxer and Kerry. In May of 2010 Senators Kerry and Lieberman released the American Power Act.   The full Senate has yet to pass S.1733 or comprehensive climate and energy legislation.

To see the provisions for solar energy within the House bill and the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill, please see the SEIA side-by-side.

Regardless of the climate policy design that Congress chooses, optimizing for solar energy technology and other renewables in the structure of such a program would result in less pollution, more carbon-free energy, and more American jobs.

SEIA’s climate asks can be found here.

Environmental Protection Agency:

Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving forward with rules on the Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases, including a plan to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. In March of 2010 the EPA amended this rule to require reporting from additional sectors, including industries that emit fluorinated gases, under the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule for Additional Sources of Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases.