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Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider

Posted: 8:52 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009

Such Sums As Necessary 

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By Jamie Dupree

Now that Democrats have released their new Cap and Trade/Climate Change bill in the Senate, there are 821 pages to go through, to see what might be stuffed in the complicated legislative text.

First, f you want to read the actual bill text, you can download it from Sen. John Kerry's website at http://is.gd/3OUUu .

After getting that bill language, the first thing that I looked for was how much money this bill would spend, and lo and behold, I found something that was in the House bill, the ole "such sums as necessary" to pay for certain Cap and Trade items.

And like the bill that was approved by the House, the Senate bill does not disappoint.  Here is a list of the sections that would approve "such sums as necessary."

Smartway Transportation Efficiency Program
Nuclear Safety and Waste Management Programs
Office of Consumer Advocacy (Section 151)
Energy Efficiency And Renewable Energy
Clean Energy and Accelerated Emission Reduction Program
Advanced Natural Gas Technologies
Advanced Energy Research
A full review of global warming changes in 2013
Another report on climate change by the National Academy of Sciences
Study of Black Carbon emissions
Domestic Black Carbon mitigation

There's also one on page 272 that has "the sums necessary" to send to the states to deal with worker retraining and other issues related to workers displaced by climate change legislation.

You can also find specific dollar amounts in the bill for certain items like water efficient products that would be rated by the feds, called "Watersense."

There would be $87.5 million dollars over four years for that, with an ongoing appropriation of $50 million each year thereafter, indexed to the Consumer Price Index.

In other words, it could go up on auto pilot.

Here are some of the other specific examples of money set aside in this new bill:

Residential Water Efficiency and Conservation Incentives - $700 million over five years, then indexed to the CPI starting at $100 million per year

$20 million for Clean Technology Business Competition Grants
$30 million over 15 years for a Product Carbon Disclosure Program
$250 million over 5 years for Economic Development Climate Change Fund
$250 million over 10 years for work on Effects of Climate Change on Drinking Water Utilities

That's the only specific spending I found. 

Obviously, a lot in this bill could change, as several different committees would need to work on the measure in the Senate, Environment & Public Works, Energy, Agriculture and then Senate Finance would have to sign off any new taxes, etc.

The bill is 821 pages.  It should grow even more.  But if you have a few minutes, leaf through it to see what you find, and please let me know if you stumble on something juicy.

 
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