We're Getting a New Climate Bill

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This is interesting news:

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) have been working for months behind closed doors on a plan that promotes domestic energy production while putting a first-ever price on greenhouse gas emissions. Aides say they have settled on a relatively short but detailed list of ideas that are ready to be turned into formal bill language...

So what's the bill going to look like? Apparently it'll be a modified cap-and-trade system.

Rather than include all major industrial sources of greenhouse gases in one broad economywide cap-and-trade system, the Senate trio will propose different types of limits for different sectors of the economy, beginning with electric utilities and then turning later to manufacturers such as chemical plants and pulp and paper mills.

This seems like a really smart idea. If different sectors trade permits in different markets and operate with different caps then you preserve the incentive for competitors to reduce emissions, but acknowledge that different industries face different challenges.