Cap-and-Trade May be Theme of 2009 Energy Technology Summit in Wise

A U.S. Federal Cap-and-Trade System, advocated by the so-called Warner-Lieberman bill, provides market incentives to lower our nations's carbon emissions and cut greenhouse emissions by 25 percent by 2020 and 66 percent by 2050.

The climate bill pending before Congress - America's Climate Security Act - is sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-VA. The measure is the only major climate legislation so far to be approved at the committee level, passing out of the Environment and Public Works committee on Dec. 5 on a vote of 11-8. It is scheduled for Senate floor debate in June.

Under the proposed Cap-and-Trade, the government would sell a fixed number of cabon pollution permits to American industry, with prices set at auction and then determined by trading on Wall Street.

The carbon trade market, or the emissions trading scheme (ETS), is among the themes now being considered for the 2009 Energy Technology Summit. The timing of the United Nations Climate Change Conference [Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009] where the adoption of post-Kyoto standards will certainly occur, makes the Warner-Lieberman bill relevant - just as it would the 2009 Energy Technology Summit in seeking to better understand regional implications of international cap-and-trade markets.