House Passes Landmark Climate Change Bill, Now Heads to Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a sweeping climate change bill today that will significantly change the way Americans use and produce energy.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), which passed on a 219-212 vote, now moves to the Senate, where experts predict another battle.

Environmental groups hailed the bill's passing.

"This vote was a major hurdle, and we've cleared it," Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a prepared statement. "President Obama can walk into the G8 summit of world leaders in Italy next week with his head held high. Now we have momentum to move and improve legislation in the Senate and put it on President Obama's desk so he can go to December's international summit in Copenhagen with the full backing of the Congress and the American people."

Before the vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told her colleagues "we cannot hold back the future." She offered four words that she said represent the meaning of the legislation.

"Jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs," she said. 

Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit Green For All, which was a driving force in securing green job training funds in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, called the bill a significant step forward in creating a more equitable and secure country. The bill includes a $860 million allocation to the Green Jobs Act.