Health Care Signed... Cap and Trade Next?

Sara posed a great question in her last post asking what has happened to all the talks about Cap and Trade. Just last week an article in the New York Times was published which addressed her question. It was titled "Tracing the Demise of Cap and Trade." This was a fitting tittle because the article then went into detail about how the phrase "cap and trade" has been faced with such strong opposition that Obama has stopped using it all together sine the passage of the energy bill in the House last June. Many opponents of the bill, like members of the Tea Party refer to it as "cap and tax." According to the Times the Senate is slowly attempting to work out the kinks and quirks in the bill to give incentives to large oil companies and power plants to adopt its policies.
Also mentioned in the article is that the reason the phrase cap and trade has appeared to die is a result of the crash on Wall Street, big industry opposition, and the current poor economy of the country. But with health care out of the way some appear optimistic that energy could be next up on the list for Congress. Two senators, Maria Cantwell and Susan Collins have proposed a new bill with the phrase "cap and dividend," in which the money gained by the bill be given back to consumers to assist in their higher monthly energy costs. Accoring to the article the the revision of teh bill could come as soon as April but who know what will happen when it comes around for the vote. Check out the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/science/earth/26climate.html?scp=1&sq=energy%20cap%20and%20trade&st=cse

I personally believe the Senate should put this bill on their priority list because its still a huge issue, which has to be dealt with sooner or later. Plus it would also help America relieve itself of its oil depenedency.
Another short article I found mentioned the a new policy in which the EPA is attempting put in place, which would require industries to report their methane emmissions also instead of only CO2 emmissions. Methane emmissions trap up to 20 times more heat than CO2 and are a worst threat to gloabal warming than CO2. This is a new fact for me and I find it to be alaring that this hasn't been done or brought up earlier. It's a short easy read. Check it out : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/science/earth/24epa.html?ref=energy-environment

-Alexander Balgobin