Climate Action Partnership impacts law

WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- Environmentalists and industrial business leaders who came together under the U.S. Climate Action Partnership are influencing legislation.

Draft legislation the Democrats plan to move forward this month reportedly takes into account many recommendations from the USCAP, USA Today reports.

"It's a remarkable dynamic," said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., a member of the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment. "It is not lost on members of Congress that you have this coalition that touches all points of the economy."

Members of the USCAP include Dow Chemical, Duke Energy, the Nature Conservancy and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

"We have to construct a system that makes sense not just environmentally but economically," said Steve Cochran, director of the climate campaign for the Environmental Defense Fund, a USCAP member. "Doing it 'with these companies' rather than 'to these companies' makes some sense."

The proposed bill would allow the government to impose a limit on emissions and calls for a 20 percent reduction from 2005 emissions levels by 2020. Companies that generate more emissions will be able to buy credits from those that generate less.

Over time, the emissions limit would be reduced.