American Clean Energy and Security Act
2009 proposed legislation in the United States
The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) was an energy bill in the 111th United States Congress (H.R. 2454) that would have established a variant of an emissions trading plan similar to the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. The bill was approved by the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009, by a vote of 219–212. With no prospect of overcoming a threatened Republican filibuster, the bill was never brought to the floor of the Senate for discussion or a vote. The House passage of the bill marked the first time the legislature had approved a bill intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The bill was also known as the Waxman-Markey Bill, after its authors, Representatives Henry A. Waxman of California and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats. Waxman was at the time the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Markey was the chairman of that committee's Energy and Power Subcommittee.
Summary of provisions
The bill proposed a cap and trade system, under which the government would set a limit (cap) on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted nationally. Companies then buy or sell (trade) permits to emit these gases, primarily carbon dioxide CO2. The cap is reduced incrementally over time to reduce total carbon emissions. The cap-and-trade program proposed by the legislation would reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions while generating revenue.
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This entry incorporates text from “American Clean Energy and Security Act” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.