This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

This week, seven U.S. governors and four Canadian premiers - partners in the fast-growing Western Climate Initiative (WCI) - released a draft design for what would be the largest cap-and-trade market for global warming pollution in North America. The outcome of many public workshops, the draft caps emissions for utilities and industry by 2012, and adds caps for residential, commercial and transportation sources by 2015.

WCI will present the draft at a stakeholder workshop and webinar in San Diego next week. Environmental Defense Fund experts Derek Walker, Jamie Fine and Martha Roberts will be there to speak in favor of a firm, binding emissions limit that declines over time, strict standards for offsets, and to remind participants of the economic benefits of action.

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

People tend to do things the way they've always done unless something forces them to change - even if the new way is better and cheaper. So Hawaii has taken action to spur people along. From an article in the L.A. Times:

California last year passed legislation offering homeowners and businesses $250 million in incentives to install 200,000 solar water systems over the next 10 years.

But Hawaii Thursday took far bolder action, becoming the first state in the nation to require all new homes built after January 1, 2010 to be equipped with solar or other energy-efficient hot water systems.

The article goes on to say that Hawaii's switch to solar hot water will save homeowners money, and prevent the emission of more than 10,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year.

This post is by Carol Andress, who manages outreach to the U.S. House of Representatives at Environmental Defense Fund.

Two new cap-and-trade bills were introduced in the House in June:

• Investing in Climate Action & Protection Act (Markey, D-MA, H.R. 6186)
• Climate MATTERS Act (Doggett/Blumenauer/Van Hollen, H.R. 6316)

They aren't the first cap-and-trade bills to be introduced in this Congress, but they bring the discussion to a new level.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Our media director, Tony Kreindler, posted a brief post-mortem analysis on Grist that raises an interesting point. He says:

But there's another important part of progress that's less obvious, what a colleague of mine calls "clearing the underbrush" - many in Congress don't focus on the finer details of legislation until it is set for a vote.

In the past few weeks, Senate offices that never before explored the weeds of climate policy took a very deep dive.

The raw numbers bode well for action in the next Congress. But the process itself can't be overlooked, and we won't get quick action in 2009 unless senators and members of the House of Representatives continue to dig into the details and figure out what works, what doesn't, and what it all means for their constituents.

It's encouraging that the House isn't waiting: Just this week, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell announced a series of legislative hearings and Rep. Ed Markey introduced a bill that looks to be the most comprehensive proposal yet in the House.

Given that the sponsors of the Climate Security Act plan to bring up the bill next year, the House looks to be moving, and the presumptive nominees of both parties say they plan to act on climate change, a post-mortem may not even be in order, even one as short as this.

Environmental Defense Fund is having its annual retreat this week, so you won't see new posts in Climate 411 until Monday. Have a great week!

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

This morning a Senate cloture vote to focus debate on the Climate Security Act and end the filibuster failed to win the necessary 60 votes. As a result, Majority Leader Harry Reid removed the bill from consideration this year.

On the plus side, a majority of senators - 48 to 36 - voted in favor, and six more senators sent written statements of support, bringing the total to 54. While the bill could not survive the continuing delay tactics, it garnered important new momentum that sets the stage for quick action in the next Congress.

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This post is by Charlie Miller, director of communications at Environmental Defense Fund.

Today's Senate debate on the Climate Security Act included quite a few misstatements of fact. We thought we'd offer corrections of some of the most egregious.

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This post is by Derek Walker, deputy director of the State Climate Campaign and director of the California Climate Initiative at Environmental Defense Fund.

Two weeks ago I posted about California's Dangerous "Proposition 98", with hidden provisions threatening the state's environmental laws. The alternative, Proposition 99, achieves the stated goals of Proposition 98 (protecting homeowners from having their dwellings seized for development) without threatening environmental protections.

The vote took place on Tuesday, and I have good news to report.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

It took until 9:45pm last night to finish reading aloud the 491-page Climate Security Act - the latest in a series of Republican stall tactics. Afterwards, a very angry Harry Reid (Senate Majority Leader) accused Republicans of "doing everything in their power to slow, stop and stall" the bill, citing a GOP strategy memo obtained from a lobbyist. The memo (this Grist post links to it) said the Republicans' goal was to "make political points" rather than amend the bill.

To move things forward, Reid filed a cloture motion to limit debate to 30 hours and proceed with a vote. This sparked another fight.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

As the Senate edges towards debate on the Climate Security Act, supporters and detractors of the bill are actively pushing for their position.

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This post is by Kusai Merchant, a policy specialist for the National Climate Campaign at Environmental Defense Fund.

At about 12:50pm today, the Senate passed a Motion to Proceed with the amendment process of the Climate Security Act. But are they ready to begin a real debate on the bill or amendments? Not quite yet…

Republicans objected to starting the amendment process without first having the clerk read the entire bill. So now the clerk is reading all 491 pages, word-for-word. At the current rate, the reading will take roughly 10 hours - that includes throat clearings and swigs of water. You can watch it live on C-Span2 (Senate Session).

This is the third procedural obstacle that opponents of progress have thrown up to a debate on the climate bill.

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