Congress is poised to begin considering proposed legislation that creates a federal cap-and-trade system which would establish an overall cap on greenhouse gas emissions and provide economic incentives or tax relief to encourage the reduced use of these harmful pollutants.

Under the current version of cap-and-trade legislation being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives, it is unclear what the estimated costs to various economic sectors will be, how allocations of permits to emit greenhouse gases will be made, and how any revenues that are generated by the bill be used. In addition, this version is bundled with other key initiatives such as the Renewable Electricity Standard and energy efficiency mandates. As a result, the debate will be intense and all sides are going to be advocating their policies and positions on cap-and-trade.

B&D Consulting is pleased to invite you to a webinar summarizing the Waxman-Markey discussion draft outlining a cap-and-trade program. With our professionals' extensive background of working on cap-and-trade legislation in previous sessions of Congress, we will be able to provide you with a unique perspective on:

• A broad description of the bill
• How elected officials and their staffs will likely respond to various inputs
• Where and how they collect information in support of their supporting arguments
• Expected partisan strategies
• The importance of securing advocacy representation prior to finalization of the bill

The webinar, which includes a question-and-answer segment, will be presented by:

Andy Ehrlich, Senior Vice President and leader of B&D Consulting's energy and climate change practice. Andy represented numerous clients on last year's Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade legislation.

Andrew Wheeler, Senior Vice President at B&D Consulting and former staff director and chief counsel for the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, which has jurisdiction over climate change mitigation programs. Andrew has worked extensively on these issues. Having led committee and floor debates three times, he is uniquely positioned to place cap-and-trade in context with other environmental and energy measures, and give participants a comprehensive look at a cap-and-trade program's role in the transformation of our economy and our nation's energy platform.