"In Close Vote, House Passes Climate Bill"

"The House narrowly passed an ambitious climate bill [Friday] that would establish national limits on greenhouse gases, create a complex trading system for emission permits and provide incentives to alter how individuals and corporations use energy.

The bill passed 219 to 212 after a furious lobbying push by the White House and party leaders won over farm-state Democrats who had complained that it was too costly, and liberals who wondered if it was too watered down to work. Even after that effort, 44 Democrats voted against the legislation.

The bill, if it became law, would lead to vast changes in the ways energy is made, sold and used in the United States -- putting new costs over time on electricity from fossil fuels and directing new billions to 'clean' power from sources such as the wind and the sun.

It would require U.S. emissions to decline 17 percent by 2020. To make that happen, the bill would create an economy that trades in greenhouse gases. Polluters would be required to buy 'credits' to cover their emissions; Midwestern farmers, among others, could sell 'offsets' for things they didn't emit; and Wall Street could turn those commodities into a new market."

Steven Mufson, David A. Fahrenthold, and Paul Kane report for the Washington Post June 27, 2009.

See Also:

"Lobbying Cash Paved Climate Bill's Road to House Floor" (Greenwire/New York Times)

"Obama Praises Climate Bill's Progress but Opposes Its Tariffs" (Washington Post)

Transcript: Obama Interview on Climate Bill (New York Times)

"Climate Bill Shaped by Compromise" (Los Angeles Times)

"The Specter of the ‘93 Energy Tax" (Dot Earth/New York Times)

"The Climate Bill in Climate Context" (Dot Earth/New York Times)

"Climate Change Bill May Be Election Issue" (New York Times)

"Republicans Highly Critical of House Energy Bill" (New York Times)