UPDATE: The bill passed the House. Now it's on to the Senate. For a preview of what that fight's going to look like, check out GOOD columnist Ben Jervey's post on the subject.The House is voting on America's first serious piece of climate legislation today. Here are some links to help you make sense of it all.THAT GRAPH ABOVE, AND YOUR SURVIVALThe graph above shows how carbon dioxide emissions would fall under the bill in the coming years, and how those emissions would rise under a "business as usual" scenario. There's a discussion of the chart over at Grist.THE BILL: AN OVERVIEW TreeHugger has a nice short overview of the bill. Environmentalists are actually divided on whether it should pass. Some think it's been weakened too much by ammendments and lobbying to be useful. Others think it's the best we'll ever get and we should accept it, warts and all. TreeHugger's conclusion? "As the most powerful nation on Earth, we can't allow climate change to progress unchecked. We need to pass this bill-it's an ethical necessity."A CONSERVATIVE WHO DOESN'T LIKE IT Fair warning: this one's pretty wonky. Alan Viard, writing at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that the way the pollution permits are given to companies "would provide windfall gains to stockholders without restraining energy prices." The bill still helps avert catastrophic climate disaster though, of course.LOWER ELECTRICITY BILLS? ThinkProgress looks at some data from the EPA and concludes that the bill will actually lower energy prices for you and me. They say the bill "would cut spending on utilities, as well as have minimal overall costs to the average household-somewhere between 22 to 48 cents a day."WHAT DOES THE PUBLIC THINK? Lots of people (Nate Silver, Matthew Yglesias, Dave Roberts) are talking about a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that just came out. It shows that "a slim majority-52 percent-supports [this cap and trade] legislation. Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said they would support carbon regulation even if it means higher prices for goods, 56 percent expressed support if CO2 regulation leads to a $10 increase in monthly utility bills."WHAT DO I THINK?Pass it.
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