U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer is set to unveil a climate change bill tomorrow, but a draft of the legislation already is circulating publicly and includes an ambitious goal of cutting emissions by 20 percent below the 2005 levels by 2020.

That's higher than the 17 percent goal set by the bill passed by the House of Representatives in June this year.

Boxer, who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, is far from done with the bill. What she is set to unveil tomorrow would still be a draft that lacks some key provisions addressing how the government would distribute permits to companies that must buy them to keep emitting greenhouse gases.

Boxer is set to fill in some of the holes when she release her mark-up of the bill next month, reported Greenwire via New York Times.

Her bill and the one passed by the House share lots of similarities. Both would issue emissions permits to support technologies that capture and then store carbon dioxide emissions.

Business and environmental groups have eagerly awaited the Senate bill, and some have hoped that Congress would pass climate legislation before the United States heads to Copenhagen this December to work on an international treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

But the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated recently that it won't likely happen.

Plenty of other issues are occupying the minds of lawmakers and President Obama. Among them is the mammoth healthcare reform that seems to grab more attention from the public. Internationally, the country is still fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and Iran is becoming an even bigger headache).

The climate change legislation would have a huge impact on the greentech business, of course. Mandates to use more renewable energy or cut emissions would benefit solar, wind and smart grid companies that sell equipment and deploy projects. They also would force players along the supply chain, from farmers to packaging businesses, to conserve power and use more energy efficient materials.

How much a climate change bill would cost the public is yet to be determined.