Who Gives A Waxman-Markey?

Key Points:
If passed into law, the American Clean Energy and Security Bill 2009 will create the largest carbon market in the world starting in 2012 and provide additional impetus to clean energy, energy efficiency and emissions offset programs.

We all should. After a decade of inaction, the US is now on the cusp of establishing the largest carbon market in the world, with the recent passage through the US House of Representatives of the American Clean Energy and Security Bill 2009, otherwise known as the Waxman-Markey Bill. The House of Representatives passed the Bill by a vote of 219-212 on June 28, 2009.

The pace at which events have moved in the US has been truly remarkable, confounding even informed commentators. Only in May at Carbon Expo in Barcelona, Democrat and Republican political advisers were expressing generally uniform opinions that the US House of Representatives might pass the Waxman-Markey Bill before the end of the year, with a Senate vote likely