Transcript
12:31 Fred Barbash-Moderator: Mark Muro, a fellow and director of policy for the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, manages the program's public policy analysis and leads key policy research projects. He’ll take your questions about the climate change bill—"The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,"crafted by Henry Waxman (D-Calif) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.)—which has passed out of committee and is being readied for the House floor. It’s popularly known as the “cap and trade bill” but there’s a lot more there that Mark will describe. Welcome Mark and welcome to all of our participants.
Thanks for being here.
Let me begin by asking Mark to summarize the legislation briefly.
12:34 Mark Muro: Thanks Fred! But enough of the formalities. What is this bill? It's a landmark effort to limit and ultimately reduce the nation's carbon dioxide emissions by imposing a strict limit on them--the "cap"--while allowing companies and other emitters to decide within a market how they will achieve those limits, including by paying others too. That's the "trade" part. they can trade permits to pollute.
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