The Emerging US Climate Change Framework
As the proposed greenhouse gas legislation wends its way through Congress, we continue to be impressed by the fact that few of the uncertainties over the ultimate shape and impact of the legislation have been resolved.
Turn back the clock a year: The Lieberman-Warner Bill seemed to have provided a guide to the type of legislation that would ultimately emerge. By June 2009, the Waxman-Markey Bill seemed to have created a perhaps unexpected compromise on some of the most contentious details of a climate change regime. But as the debate has moved to the Senate, the underlying fissures have started to re-emerge. At the time of writing, late July 2009, the remaining uncertainties seem to us to fall into four categories: the overall shape and timing of climate change legislation, the details of cap and trade, the business impacts of cap and trade, and future changes.
In this article, the authors review each of the four categories and conclude that waiting for "greater certainty" is not an option for today's energy companies.
