Sen. Whitehouse to push carbon fee bill

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) will unveil new legislation that will put a price on carbon emissions.

Whitehouse, a staunch environmentalist, will announce details of the bill during a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday.

The bill is expected to help slash carbon emissions by charging a fee for each ton emitted. It will also generate over a trillion dollars in revenue to go back to the public, Whitehouse said.

{mosads}Whitehouse has been preparing the bill for some time, first introducing a draft in March, which put the Environmental Protection Agency and Treasury Department in charge of determining what emitters would be charged, and collecting and managing the revenue.

Whiethouse told reporters Monday evening that there “will be demand” for his bill, despite it coming on the heels of an election that handed Republicans a majority in the Senate and increased their numbers in the House.