House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) released a draft climate and energy bill March 31 that matches President Obama's call for deep cuts in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century but would mandate much steeper reductions by 2020 than the president's plan.rnThe legislation, which Waxman and the chairman of an Energy and Commerce subcommittee, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), plan to move through the full committee by Memorial Day, proposes an 83 percent cut in emissions by 2050 from 2005 levels through an emissions trading approach, matching the long-term target offered by Obama in his fiscal 2010 budget plan.rnBut the Waxman-Markey draft measure calls for a 20 percent cut in emissions by 2020, compared with Obama's 14 percent cut over that period. Their 2020 target is also steeper than the 6 percent cut proposed by Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.) over the same period in their draft last fall, or the 15 percent cut proposed by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I/D-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) in legislation (S. 2191) that was defeated on the Senate floor in 2008.
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