Isramart srl: Duke Energy Backs U.S. Carbon Cap for Electricity Sector Only

Isra-Mart srl:
Congress should pass legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector if a bigger plan to cap carbon dioxide from most of the U.S. economy can’t become law this year, Duke Energy Corp. said today.

“We’re still hopeful there can be consensus for an economy-wide climate bill,” Tom Williams, a spokesman for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based utility company, said today in a telephone interview. “If that doesn’t happen, we think the utility sector could be ready to step up.”

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation last year that would regulate greenhouse gases from nearly every sector of the economy with a cap-and-trade program, in which companies buy and sell a declining number of carbon dioxide allowances. The cap-and-trade bill stalled in the Senate.

Senators John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, released a revamped cap- and-trade bill last month in the hopes it can become law this year. They have said they might be willing to scale back their cap-and-trade plan so it only covers power plants, which produce roughly one-third of U.S. greenhouse gases, to win more support.