Waxman-Markley bill has made it out of the House. The vote was relatively close. 219-212. Eight Republicans voted for the bill. 44 Democrats voted against the bill. This bill is also known as the America Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. A lot of Republicans are upset at the cap-and-trade portion of the bill. Personally, I think that cap-and-trade is a copout. I think this makes the bill overly complex and it's unclear whether we will gain anything from the complexity. I find a more complex bills are, the larger the loopholes. Simply give companies tax incentives for upgrading to more environmentally friendly equipment and processes. You need to make the incentives large enough that companies that decide not to upgrade will be financially hurt compared to their competitors. Although President Obama has stated that he will support this bill, I predict that a fairly uphill and bruising battle in the Senate. I should add, that this bill is packed with green jobs. Currently, we're in the midst of a slow jobless recovery (I think... I hope). We should get more jobs as more infrastructure building projects come online. We should also get a significant number of jobs generated through this bill. We need this extra "stimulus."

Obama talks about this bill in weekly Video address. Watch the video: