At the end of last week, Senator John Kerry introduced S. 1733, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, an energy bill that will be put in a long line for delayed consideration, perhaps next year. Although the legislation is supposed to move the United States toward using more clean sources of energy, environmental organizations are already finding serious flaws and inadequacies in the bill.

Climate SOS referred to the legislation’s structure as the “scheme of choice for polluters and Wall Street executives”. The Center for Biological Diversity comments that, “the targets in the Senate bill – like those in the House bill – are woefully inadequate. This legislation would not save the polar bear and numerous other species and ecosystems because it simply does not go far enough quickly enough.”

Among the bill’s problems is its embrace of the propaganda of so-called “clean coal”. In describing his bill, Senator Kerry writes that with the help of his legislation, “technologies will allow us to reinvent coal as a clean, homegrown energy source and enable our coal industry to remain competitive as the world reduces the carbon pollution that damages our health and causes climate change.”

How is this supposed to happen? The Kerry energy bill allows utility companies to create new fees that customers will need to pay – 10 billion dollars in fees. Those extra charges on our utility bills will go to pay for a corporation with the goal of demonstrating that carbon sequestration technologies could work. 10 billion dollars just to attempt to demonstrate that coal might be able to be clean? That’s a benefit for the coal industry, not for American consumers.

The bill also allows for the continued construction of new coal-fired power plants, in spite of the fact that burning coal is one of the most dirty forms of energy production currently in use in the United States. An energy bill that seriously deals with the threat of climate change would establish a framework for the decommissioning of coal plants, not their expansion.

It’s deeply concerning to environmentalists to see that the Kerry energy bill has started the legislative process with so many concessions to big industry polluters. As we’ve learned with health care reform legislation, the Senate Democrats lack the will to resist corporate-backed efforts to weaken bills as they run through committees. Unfortunately, we can expect the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act to become worse, not better, as the months pass.