Boxer Answers Obama¿s Climate Call

(The Politico)  Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said on Thursday she'd offer a pair of major climate change bills early next year.

One measure would allocate $15 billion a year in grants for advanced biofuel development, and the other would aim to implement an economy-wide cap on emissions. 

While the bills are far from drafted, Boxer said both would be designed as economic stimulus packages to create more green jobs and jump-start Barack Obama’s challenge to reverse global warming.

“I believe strongly that we have a recipe for economic recovery,” Boxer told reporters at the Capitol. “The time to start is now, and that’s why my colleagues and I are here to step up to President-Elect Obama’s call to action to address global warming and create millions of green jobs in America.”

The cap-and-trade legislation would likely meet the emission-reduction targets that Obama laid out in his climate address Monday to the bipartisan Governors Global Climate Summit. Those targets call for emission levels to be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020 with an 80 percent reduction by 2050.

“Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response,” Obama said in his video address to the governors.