The following is a list of 10 reasons why enacting a "cap, invest now and recover" strategy, that uses revenues from future carbon auctions to finance low carbon initiatives today, should be passed in 2009 and can provide the additional stimulus needed to help re-power the US economy.

1) Complimentary Economic Stimulus

Passing climate legislation now and using future carbon allowance allocations to focus additional stimulus toward improving our energy productivity would not only compliment an economic stimulus package, but accelerate and better enable President-elect Obama's plan to put 2.5 million Americans to work engineering, manufacturing, installing, and servicing the new energy economy.   

2) Bridges the Credit Gap

A well designed cap and invest program can help bridge the credit gap by enabling state governments and the private sector to use future allowance auction revenue as a form of collateral for performance based low carbon initiatives during the period following enactment and before the start of the cap and trade program (e.g. 2009-12). Key programs under the cap, invest now and recover program would include; 1) low cost financing for producers and purchasers of advanced low-carbon vehicles, 2) financing incentives for energy efficiency initiatives, and 3) deployment support for emerging clean energy supply technologies.

3) Improves Regulatory Certainty

Climate legislation will sharply reduce the regulatory uncertainty that has previously limited capital investment in clean energy solutions.  Long-term emission reduction targets and expectations of an impending market price on global warming pollution will give investors the confidence needed to invest in a long-lived clean energy infrastructure.

4) Pays for Itself

With the US Treasury having to fund a series of stimulus packages aimed at stabilizing and jump start the economy, passing climate legislation with incentives that can be paid back through the cap and invest program can help reduce the impacts of the current crisis on future generations.

5) Manufacturing Jobs

Enacting climate legislation in 2009 will create and retain jobs that would otherwise be lost to bottom line cost pressures stemming from the economic slowdown. By providing incentives to scale up energy productivity investment like combined heat and power (CHP), which lowers a manufactures fuel consumption by capturing and utilizing the waste heat from its industrial processes, bottom line costs for domestic production can be significantly reduced. Indeed if deployment of CHP capacity was scaled up to 20% of electric capacity by 2030 from 9% today, manufacturers' net energy costs would fall by nearly $1trln over the next two decades, making domestic businesses more competitive and employ nearly one million people in well paid jobs servicing this growth sector of the economy in the process.  

6) Auto Jobs

The autos, which are now teetering on the brink of collapse due to a combination of weak economic fundamentals and poor investment decisions, can also be thrown a lifeline through passing climate change regulation next year. By giving domestic auto makers the ability to tap performance based re-tooling incentives starting as soon as the bill is enacted, a well designed "cap, invest now and recover" bill would provide targeted funding to improve the Big 3's product mix toward the cleaner more efficient cars American's want to drive. 

7) Clean Tech Jobs

The renewables industry would receive a double boost from climate legislation in the form of incentives to develop and deploy cutting edge low carbon technologies and the prospect of a level playing field once the cap goes into effect, forcing fossil fuels to pay for their global warming emissions.

8) Efficiency Jobs

A climate bill passed in 2009 would encourage a scale roll out of energy efficiency programs in buildings, industry, and transportation. Currently the US extracts only $112 of real GDP per QBTUs which is amongst the lowest in the developed world. This compares to Europe which gets $138 of real GDP per QBTUs and pales in comparison to Japan which gets an impressive $229 of GDP per QBTUs. With climate legislation in place that would offer incentives to promote weatherization and other retrofit programs to scale on a nation wide basis through state incentive programs, hundreds of thousands of people can be put to work immediately to advance our energy productivity.

9) Energy Security Enhancement

Reduced energy consumption from incentives provided through a "cap, invest now and recover" program would build on the new energy economy aspects of expected near-term economic stimulus legislation, greatly improving our nation's energy security.

10) Directed and Focused Investment Incentives

Passing climate legislation now that would complement the economic stimulus packages being put in place by the new administration would help ensure that efforts to jump start the economy are well directed and focused . By focusing on our carbon intensity, the United States can lower our cost of doing business, grow jobs, improve our climate and energy security, and create export opportunities for innovative US companies for decades to come.