Via Think Progress, Bloomberg reports that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will introduce a proposal today to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by the year 2020.

President Barack Obama has called for the U.S. to reduce emissions 80 percent by 2050, and get a quarter of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Waxman's proposal would follow those goals.

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Waxman's plan to cut emissions is similar to a proposal by the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a group that favors federal action on emissions limits and includes utilities, oil companies and environmental organizations. The group in January proposed reducing such greenhouse gases by up to 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Actually, Waxman's proposal is a little more aggressive than Obama's current plan, at least in the short term, for reducing emissions.  Whereas Obama has asked Congress for legislation that would result in reductions of roughly 15 percent by 2020 and over 80 percent by 2050, Waxman wants to cut emissions 20 percent by 2020, 42 percent by 2030 (a doubling of the emission reduction in just 10 years), and 83 percent by 2050.

The Waxman proposal currently does not provide details on the mechanisms for implementing a cap-and-trade system for curbing emissions.  However, according to Reuters, Democratic aides have said that the cap-and-trade system would not begin until 2012, when it will be required to reduce emissions from 2005 levels by 3%.

My first take is that I'm quite pleased that Rep. Waxman is moving forward to aggressively tackle global warming caused by greenhouse gases.  Such a proposal would never have gained traction under the Bush Administration, and I'm skeptical that the legislation would have ever gotten out of the Senate, much less the former President's desk.

However, I'm also tempered by the fact that the recession might force the U.S. to scale back their efforts to curb emissions, whether or not it's the right thing to do.  Obama's Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu warned last month:

...reaching agreement on legislation to combat climate change would be difficult in the current recession because any scheme to regulate greenhouse gas emissions would probably cause energy prices to rise and drive manufacturing jobs to countries where energy is cheaper.

"The concern about cap-and-trade in today's economic climate," Dr. Chu said, "is that a lot of money might flow to developing countries in a way that might not be completely politically sellable."

Still, getting the Waxman proposal to the floor of Congress is a very exciting development.  You can bet that the Party of No is just rearing to dig in its heels:

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Obama's climate control ideas would cost households $3,100 a year "just for doing the same things people have always done, like turning on the lights and doing laundry."

That would be, by my calculation, a little more than $1.50 a year since Jesus was born, right Mitch?  Perhaps he forgot to mention his support for that oh-so-much-better energy proposal of Drill Baby Drill.  Maybe he also forgot to mention his support for a mega tax cut to the rich while basically screwing people making less than $250,000 -- you know, like most of those people living in the Midwest who actually do their own laundry.

House minority leader John Boehner (R-OH) also weighed in on the Waxman proposal a little while ago:

"This change would effectively bar the American auto manufacturers from competing in the largest market in America," Boehner wrote, "unless they make substantial changes in manufacturing that would increase costs to consumers, making the "Big 3″ even less competitive -- and making their collapse even more likely."

That last statement by Boehner in opposition to Waxman's proposal came in November of 2008.  Obviously, not much has changed since then....except the fact that the Big 3, the automakers whom Boehner wanted to "protect" by blocking tougher emissions standards, might be headed for bankruptcy -- and that was BEFORE Waxman even introduced his proposal.

The first hearing for Waxman's legislation is expected to take place during the week of April 20.  A full committee vote may occur as early as the week of May 11.

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Cross-posted at Daily Kos