With an international climate conference set to begin in December in Copenhagen, Senators Boxer and Kerry recently introduced climate change legislation aimed at reducing America's greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020. The bill, dubbed "The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act," uses a cap-and-trade system to achieve this goal, similar to the bill that passed in the House earlier this year. Though Senate leaders have all but said the bill won't be debated until next year, Copenhagen has given the issue a greater sense of urgency.

Now is the time for Congress to act. Ever since a bill authored by Senator Joe Lieberman failed to win passage in 2007, climate change proponents have hoped that the U.S. could implement a system that actually takes real steps to reduce carbon emissions -- not soft targets and not goals. A system that actually mandates a reduction every year to incentivize the marketplace to take global warming seriously, and to innovate accordingly.

This is exactly what the Kerry-Boxer bill aims to do, and while Republicans falsely characterize this as a "job killer" it will actually be anything but. Passing a greenhouse gas reduction mandate will spur growth within the green energy industry, and encourage both individuals and businesses to retrofit their houses or buildings with much more energy-efficient technologies. This will lead to a demand in those sectors, and put more people to work as Americans look for new ways to reduce their energy use/cost.

This is just one manner in which a cap-and-trade system could change the way Americans use energy. We hope to see the Senate take up this bill before year's end.