Brett Freeman: Waxman-Markey Will Mandate Greener Building, Drive Green Renovation

By Brett Freeman, Huffington Post

The Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill could take an important step toward becoming law by the end of the week. At the heart of the bill is a plan to create a cap-and-trade system that would limit--and put a price tag on--greenhouse gas emissions. The emissions cuts would be gradual and increasing, starting with a cut of three percent in 2012, and a target of 80 percent lower emissions by 2050.

Opposition rhetoric to the Waxman-Markey bill has grown increasingly shrill of late. Republican House leader John Boehner released a memo Tuesday stating that passage of the bill would devastate the economy by "crippling small businesses," sending millions of jobs overseas, and raising energy costs. On the other side of the aisle, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a vote on the bill for Friday. Both seem to indicate that the fight is over, with Republicans posturing in the face of defeat and Democrats eager to get the bill passed.

As noted in a Washington Post editorial, Waxman-Markey will, in effect, create a federal building code, a drastic step given that states and municipalities have previously been able to set their own building standards. These new federal regulations would require that new buildings be 30 percent more efficient by 2012 and 50 percent more efficient by 2016. Although mandating such dramatic improvements so quickly may seem draconian, the technology needed to create that efficiency already exists. Building "green" costs about the same...