With a major energy bill expected to be before the Senate in the next couple of weeks, a counter proposal introduced Wednesday by Sens. Susan Collins and Joseph Lieberman moves the debate from a fossil-fuels policy to a cleaner, more affordable energy future.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid soon will present an energy bill that is a collection of smaller bills from four separate committees – Energy and Natural Resources, Environment and Public Works, Commerce, Science and Transportation and Foreign Relations. The Collins-Lieberman proposal also draws from exiting legislation in various committees, but it is stronger and more comprehensive. For instance, it properly connects climate change to energy policy and goes further to ensure long-term improvements in vehicle fuel economy without the backdoor exemptions in the Reid plan. And the Reid bill lacks an increase in renewables for electricity production found in the Collins-Lieberman bill.

In a floor statement, Sen. Collins said her bill focuses its climate-change section on electricity and transportation because those two sectors account for 73 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. But while it is aggressive, the bill is also realistic – it calls for average fuel economy standards for vehicles to reach 35 miles per gallon by 2019 (and 45 mpg by 2030). The National Academy of Science in 2002 concluded the 35 mpg goal was achievable over 10 to 15 years using currently available technology.

Besides emphasizing and encouraging renewable fuels, the bill takes aim at existing coal-fired power plants, a grandfathered sector that has escaped tighter controls for decades. Under the bill, they would have until their 41st year or five years after the passage of the legislation to meet most modern pollution-control standards. As more evidence arrives about the depth and breadth of climate change, tough action such as this is essential.

Most encouraging about this legislation, however, is that it brings Congress into a discussion that the public, through the work of scientists, economists and advocacy groups, has been having for years. Says Sen. Collins, “This legislation is based upon the principle that the research, development and implementation of new approaches to energy independence and environmental stewardship will provide a powerful stimulus for our economy. All too often, we are confronted with proposals to address one issue that only aggravates the other.”

By pulling together proposals to increase energy independence, reduce air pollutants, reduce fuel costs and address global warming, the bill gives the Senate a substantial energy bill. But it is a bill that must make it through committee while a more tepid bill is headed for the Senate floor. Many of the individual pieces of the Collins-Lieberman package already exist as separate bills that could become amendments to the bill by Sen. Reid.

One measure of that bill’s success might be how successful Sens. Collins, Lieberman and others are in amending that bill to make it look much more like the one Sen. Collins described last week.