The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) (also referred to as the Waxman-Markey Bill) primarily sought to promote a clean energy economy, reduce greenhouse emissions, and create energy independence.
A cap is a set limit on some form of income, interest, fees, loan, or benefit. Examples of caps:
Cap-and-trade is a system that limits aggregate emissions from a group of emitters by setting a “cap” on maximum emissions. It is characterized as a market-based policy to reduce overall emissions of pollutants and encourage business investment in fossil fuel alternatives and energy efficiency.
See: cap and trade.
[Last reviewed in November of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team]
Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) technologies prevent or remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere, and then the captured carbon is reused in manufacturing or stored underground. CCUS technology has yet to be widely adopted, but many see CCUS, alongside planting trees, as key to implementing carbon offset and cap-and-trade systems.
Carbon offsets are credits representing the removal of one ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. These offsets are obtainable through activities such as planting trees or carbon capture that legally offset the amount of carbon that a polluting entity has emitted.
See: carbon offset.
[Last reviewed in December of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team]
Commerce refers generally to the activity of exchanging products, goods, and services for financial gain. The word commerce usually is used to mean economic activity broadly on a national or other large scale. Commerce can be used in many contexts but is most commonly used by governments in their constitutions and laws to define the authority of the government to regulate commerce activity.
The Commerce Clause refers to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among states, and with the Indian tribes.”
For most of American history, the federal government did not play an active role in the energy industries. During the Great Depression and into the years of WWII, the federal government began to establish a fragmented regulatory framework, with many agencies participating.
