In May 2010 U.S. Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman published a draft piece of legislation called the American Power Act, which would set U.S. national greenhouse gas emission targets and establish an economy-wide cap-and-trade system.
Some of the most relevant provisions of the bill for Canada include:
- the treatment of transportation emissions
- approach to emissions-intensive, trade-exposed sectors
- border adjustment provisions and the assessment of "comparability"
- use of offset credits.
While Canada has set a 2020 target that matches the bill's 2020 target, Canada has no plan in place to meet it. The Government of Canada has also failed to outline an approach to slow the growth in emissions from the oilsands sector, which is projected to account for the overwhelming majority of Canada's projected business-as-usual growth in industrial (including power plant) emissions to 2020.
