After a short break for the Fourth of July, Congress is back at work.

Shortly before the week-long break, the House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which included a cap-and-trade system and was the first U.S. bill to regulate greenhouse gases.

Today the Senate started working on its own version by holding a hearing in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The committee, chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, heard testimony from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, among others.

On Wednesday, July 8, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on international trade issues and connections to global warming – the House bill increased trade regulations with countries that produce high numbers of global warming gases – and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will look at the effectiveness of the European Union’s cap-and-trade system.

Politico reported that any cap-and-trade legislation in the Senate bill is unlikely and that a floor vote will not happen before the long summer recess next month.   

The Car Allowance Rebate System, formerly known as the Cash-for-Clunkers bill, takes effect today, July 1.

Yesterday, President Barack Obama signed the bill into law that pays consumers up to $4,500 in credit for trading in their cars or trucks for more fuel-efficient vehicles. The $1 billion program is overseen by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Details of how the plan will be rolled out are still being discussed. The full release is expected by July 24, but cars purchased between July 1 and Nov. 1, 2009 (if the funds do not run out before that) will qualify.

Here are some requirements listed from the CARS program website:

• Your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date.
• Only purchases or leases of new vehicles qualify.
• Generally, the vehicles you trade in must get 18 or fewer miles per gallon. You can check your current car's gas mileage estimate here.
• The new car being purchased must get a minimum of 22 miles per gallon and cannot exceed a price of $45,000.
• The vehicle you trade in must be drivable.
• Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in.
• The vehicle that you are trading in is required to be destroyed. Therefore, the value negotiated with the dealer for your trade-in is not likely to exceed its scrap value.

The CARS rebate does not count on top of the trade-in value of your vehicle. When you trade your car in, you do not need to do any paperwork with the government because the dealer will apply the credit when you buy the new vehicle.

The bill is designed for people with older, inefficient cars who are looking for new, more fuel-efficient cars. But there have been criticisms that the purpose of the bill is more for stimulating car sales than greening America’s fleet, since the gas mileage standard is just a 4 mpg increase.

Others, such as the Washington Post, are criticizing the bill for not providing enough money. The $1 billion of credits is only expected to increase car sales by 250,000 cars. Businessweek quoted Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of Edmunds, saying that the program will not help the auto industry because auto sales would need to increase by 3 million vehicles more to get them out of the bad situation they are in now. But most automakers and auto dealers support the program.

What do you think about the new program? If you qualify, what kind of car would you get? If you don’t qualify, what kind of car would you want to get? Share your thoughts by posting a comment below.

Hold onto your hats, Congress is debating climate change. Right now the U.S. House is considering the Waxman-Markey climate bill.

To get in on the fun, check out the extensive coverage over on Grist. You can find their latest articles on the climate bill here. (One especially fun article: Grist’s description of Gore v. Hansen on the climate bill, complete with an illustration showing those two environmental heavyweights boxing.)

Also today, I was reading an e-mail update from the American Solar Energy Society. They had a short and helpful summary of why they believe that the climate bill isn’t strong enough and what could be done to improve it. Here’s a link to their recommendations.

Friday is the last day to participate in Repower America’s campaign to encourage the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide pollution, a major contributor to global warming. Repower America advocates 100 percent clean energy use in 10 years.

Cathy Zoi, Repower America CEO, sent an action alert e-mail urging supporters to post comments, which will appear on the EPA Web site.

The EPA will rule on whether it considers carbon dioxide and other pollutants a danger to public health and welfare under the Clean Air Act.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide if it harms public health and welfare in April 2007.

The court ruled five to four that the EPA violated the Clean Air Act by not regulating new-vehicle emissions standards to control pollutants contributing to global warming.

"EPA has offered no reasoned explanation for its refusal to decide whether greenhouse gases cause or contribute to climate change," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.

Repower America has been critical of the Bush administration for taking the side of oil and coal lobbyists on the issue of global climate change, but thinks the new Obama administration will be more receptive to the public comments.

If you have an opinion on the EPA’s decision, comment by Friday, Nov. 28.

Renewable energy has been in the news lately, as the U.S. presidential candidates have been discussing their energy plans, and many other people have been talking about renewable energy, including T. Boone Pickens and Al Gore.

Yesterday, Bill Clinton weighed in with his own recommendations for what the U.S. government should do to promote renewables and combat climate change when he spoke at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas.

There’s a great summary of Clinton’s top 10 recommendations for cleaner energy here on Earth2Tech. Just a few of the measures he suggested were making improvements to the electrical grid, establishing a carbon cap and trade system, and renewing tax credits for producing renewable energy for the next six to 10 years.

This week the U.S. presidential candidates have had a lot to say about energy. Barack Obama released his official energy plan on Monday. John McCain released many of the details of his position on energy back in June.

Both candidates are voicing strong support for improving energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, developing more renewable energy and moving toward energy independence. But the energy issues they’re focusing on and the details of their plans are very different. For instance, McCain is putting much more emphasis on developing nuclear energy, while Obama has set much higher goals for developing electricity from renewable sources.

If you’d like to read more about their plans, CNN has a good summary of the two candidates' positions on energy here.

You can also read the details of the plans on the candidates’ Web sites. You can find more about McCain’s energy plan at www.johnmccain.com, and Obama’s at www.barackobama.com.