The World

Electrifying a Nationwide Standard

Despite the failure to get the 111th Congress to pass ambitious climate change legislation, a bipartisan band of Senators has mounted an eleventh-hour effort to boost low-carbon sources of electricity.

Two years ago hopes were high for tough legislation on climate change in this Congress. But a Senate bill failed this summer and left the policy mechanism “cap-and-trade” battered and bruised. Now green lobbyists are swinging behind a modest approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: a federal renewable electricity standard. Living on Earth’s Mitra Taj reports this could be the 111th Congress’s last chance to move the country toward a low-carbon economy.