Daily Score Blog

Geez, I thought we were done with the Obama blogging for the week, but apparently I just can't help myself.  Take a look at what the administration is asking Congress to send it in the way of Cap & Trade legislation (see page 21 of the main budget document, which you can get here).

Begin a Comprehensive Approach to Transform Our Energy Supply and Slow Global Warming. The Administration is developing a comprehensive energy and climate change plan to invest in clean energy, end our addiction to oil, address the global climate crisis, and create new American jobs that cannot be outsourced. After enactment of the Budget, the Administration will work expeditiously with key stakeholders and the Congress to develop an economy-wide emissions reduction program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions approximately 14 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and approximately 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. This program will be implemented through a cap-and-trade system, a policy approach that dramatically reduced acid rain at much lower costs than the traditionalgovernment regulations and mandates of the past. Through a 100 percent auction to ensure that the biggest polluters do not enjoy windfall profits, this program will fund vital investments in a clean energy future totaling $150 billion over 10 years, starting in Fy 2012. The balance of the auction revenues will be returned to the people, especially vulnerable families, communities, and businesses to help the transition to a clean energy economy.

To me, this has all the right ideas:  steep reductions in emissions; full auctioning of carbon permits to prevent windfalls by polluters; and a good mix of investments in clean energy and rebates to consumers. 

Who knows what Congress will eventually give us -- but this is the exact right proposal to get the ball rolling.  And let's  hope that legislators in Washington and Oregon, who are contemplating a regional cap and trade program, will consider the US proposal as a model.

Update:  I was going to take a look at the budget numbers and revenue estimates, but other folks got to it first.  See here, here, and here.

In his analysis of Obama's not-the-State-of-the-Union address this week, political language and framing expert Jeffrey Feldman (founder and blogger at Frameshop), articulated what we've known in our gut for a while: Obama is shifting the American discourse about government. In a good way. And in a big way.

What Feldman points out is that much of this shift can be summed up in a single word that Obama uses a lot -- a word that you could say Obama has reclaimed: investment.

The way Obama has defined it (and he's in the number one spot to set the agenda for the country), it's no longer limited to the concept of personal or private "investment."

Our personal investments are withering away. Private investment has failed us. Obama is renewing the American ideal of public investments as building blocks to prosperity -- everybody's prosperity. In other words, reinforcing the idea (not a new one but not one we've heard for a long time) that the investments we make together, as communities, build a stronger, healthier future.

I came across this article in the Oregonian this morning (and haven't been able to stop making puns about it since).

A company that used to build commercial car carriers is now building homes out of junked cars (those pancaked stacks you see on trucks). It takes four to six of these cars to provide enough steel for the frame of the house.

What seems especially cool is that not only are they recycling cars to make these houses, they're also making them energy efficient and affordable:

"Over the course of a year, the team made energy efficiency their mantra. They emphasized a tight structural envelope encased in rigid foam insulation and slathered wall cavities and crawl spaces with blown-in foam insulation for a more airtight seal. The finished, insulated crawl spaces between floors containing the home's heating, ventilating and cooling systems allow for shorter duct runs and smaller, high-efficiency furnaces"

..."What's more, Boydstun's experimental model home -- based on a stock plan from a magazine -- was completed for $95 a square foot."

Not to mention it only takes 45 days to build one, instead of six to nine months, and with five workers instead of fifteen.

Here's President Obama, in his state of the union address on Tuesday, asking Congress to send him legislation that puts a cap on carbon emissions:

And his budget fleshes out exactly what sort of carbon cap he's looking for:

Today, the White House will unveil a budget that assumes there will be revenue from an emissions trading system by 2012.

Sources familiar with the document said it would direct $15 billion of that revenue to clean-energy projects, $60 billion to tax credits for lower- and middle-income working families, and additional money to offsetting higher energy costs for families, small businesses and communities.

This, for me, is pure awesomeness with a cherry on top. The best news is that the Obama Administration clearly understands climate fairness:  the need for a sweeping climate policy that's not only effective at curbing emissions, but also protects the poor and middle class from the effects of higher energy prices.

More details from the New York Times...