Since the controversy over the passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454), which passed the House in June, the debate on Cap-and-Trade has taken a back seat to discussions and protests of health care reform.

As health reform legislation moves forward, and the war in Afghanistan builds steam, Senate Democrats are quietly moving forward on Cap-and-Tax, with stiffer requirements than the bill passed by the House.

According to the Associated Press, the bill will be introduced by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sometime on Wednesday. The Democratic bill is expected to push for a “20 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2020”, 3 percent more than the House version.

Democrats will likely push the issue as quick as possible. In a year in which record low temperatures have been sweeping the globe, public perception of “global warming” is starting to lose steam. Marc Morano from the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works states that global temperatures have been falling since 2001.

With the public outrage over the passage of the Cap-and-Trade in the House (many calling Cap-and-Tax) and the evident global cooling trend that is taking place on a global scale, Sen. John Kerry and President Obama appear to be trying to divert the issue of taxation on non-greenhouse energy production to a “pollution reduction” agenda instead:

I don’t know what ‘cap and trade’ means. I don’t think the average American does,” Kerry told reporters. “This is not a cap-and-trade bill, it’s a pollution reduction bill.”  Kerry’s word choice echoes President Obama’s references to “greenhouse gas pollution” and “carbon pollution” in his Tuesday address to the United Nations. Top Obama administration science officials, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu and U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, have also adopted similar vocabulary in recent months (Climatewire, Sept. 23).

Although the bill is over 800 pages long, and Democrat leaders expect a vote within the coming few weeks, do not expect to see a final version “officially” released to the public prior to voting. Although President Obama promised the American people that he “will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days,” That’s a promise he has repeatedly failed to keep.

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