Congress Focuses On Global Warming Legislation

Former Vice President Al Gore testified before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment in support of "The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009." Describing the bill as "One of the most important pieces of legislation ever introduced to Congress," Gore called its passage a "moral imperative."

Gore cited recent research showing dangerous changes in climate due to man-made global warming including melting arctic ice, increased carbon in water, and extreme weather events.

The proposed bill, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, will create a cap-and-trade limit on carbon emissions, meaning that companies will have to buy and sell the right to produce carbon, making it more economical to reduce carbon. The E.P.A.'s findings state that this bill will "transforms the structure of energy production and consumption, moving the U.S. to a clean energy economy."

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich also testified before the subcommittee, calling the bill a huge mistake. He explained that the bill imposes an energy tax, stating, "If you use electricity it punishes you, if you use heating oil it punishes you, if you use gasoline it punishes you. This bill will increase your cost of living." Gingrich worries that the U.S. will not be able to compete in a global economy if no other countries tax carbon.

However, Gore stated that he believes if the U.S. acts, the world will follow. Describing the moral significance as equal to that of civil rights legislation of the 1960's, he explained, "Passage of this legislation will restore America's leadership of the world and begin, at long last, to solve the climate crisis."

Blackburn: Democrates Trying To Tax As Fast As They Can

By Suzia van Swol-University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service

President Obama may be getting too friendly with Venezuelan President.

House Republicans will have conversations this week concerning the after math of the Summit of the Americas. The summit, which was held last week in Trinidad and Tobago, raised concerns for Republicans who have taken a hard line against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who for years has ridiculed the U.S. and openly criticized its foreign policy.

Congressman Mike Pence (Ind.), Chairman of the House Republican Conference and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, outlined the upcoming week during a weekly pen and pad session, and said House Republicans will discuss Cap-and-Trade legislation which Democrats are proposing.

Cap-and-Trade would put a limit on the amount of greenhouse gas an oil or electric company can emit, and anything exceeding a set “cap” results in companies buying pollution allowances or credits from companies who have not exceeded their limits.

Pence said that Republicans are in the process of not only developing a rebuttal but offering alternatives to the “legislation that could result in utility rates of every American household increasing by $3,128 per year,” and leaves Republicans demanding details said Pence.

This dollar estimate is based on an Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, but according to a Pence staffer, Prof. John Reillyin, who is in charge of the study, believes the number should be cited lower due to anticipated rebates.

Pence said that “we are using the numbers that are in the public domain right now, the Democratic leadership has offered no numbers.”

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (TN) joined Pence in his discussions and said that there are other options that should be included in Cap-and-Trade legislation such as clean coal technologies and bio-diesels, and that it would be a shame to take things completely off the table simply because Democrats “are rushing to the finish line, trying to get in a tax as fast as they can,” said Blackburn.

“Congress has a gun held to our head, and we grab it and we shoot ourselves in the chest, ya know because that’s the action that they are taking this year,” she said.

G.R.E.E.N. Spells Jobs

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

When blue collar unions and green environmentalists discussed how alternative energy is a path to new, high quality jobs, the Blue Green Alliance was born, according to Dave Foster, the Executive Director.


Foster notes that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former Sen. John Warner (R-VA) have sponsored separate Cap-and-Trade bills, and, along with Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (R-ME), still support some form of carbon tax.

Europe and Japan have far lower per capita energy usage, he said, which means “through efficiency, we can pay for an awful lot of of these global warming reductions.”


Still, "I find it a little odd that a certain section of the Republican party has chosen to wave the banner of anti-science,” Foster said.

America is already feeling the economic effects of climate change, Foster said, and gave the example of the loss of 4,000 jobs in the aluminum industry as decreased amounts of snow pack formed in the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest over the past 20 years. Hydroelectric dams depend on snow melt for power. As that diminished, electricity became prohibitively expensive.


“The cost of doing nothing about global warming will far, far exceed the cost of doing something," Foster said, while praising the thousands of steel-working jobs gained in manufacturing clean-energy wind turbines.


Foster said that alternative energy jobs tend to put skilled people back to work in familiar jobs.


“We’re not engaging in massive re-training, we’re engaging in a massive recall to work... On exactly the kinds of projects that they’ve been trained to do before,” he said.

“The Blue Green Alliance is a strategic national partnership between labor unions (the “blue” in “blue-collar”) and environmental organizations (the “green”) “ (http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/site/c.enKIITNpEiG/b.3416603/k.DD10/About_BGA.htm)

Is Cap-and-Trade the Answer?

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News


At the Washington Post Company Conference on "Planning for a Secure Energy Future," Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) said, "We are the Saudi Arabia of coal." It's harmful, he acknowledged, but we have it in abundance and we’re dependent on it. If we don't use coal, China and India will. We should have committed to alternative energy 30 years ago, "but American attention to these matters goes on and off like the light when you throw the switch," he said.
Clean coal is a relative term. We can substantially reduce emissions, but how and at what cost will involve serious debate, he said.
"The Europeans have had at least two fine messes" applying cap-and-trade, Dingell said, adding that there are many options, all having flaws, and Congress will have a huge fight over them.
Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) said coal is a great energy source, "but it has one bad feature: if we burn the coal reserves that we know exist in this country and in China, the planet will cook." He said the coal industry needs cap-and-trade, because if it does not become clean, it becomes unsustainable. Cap-and-trade revenue could fund the necessary research. "The future of this industry depends on the existence of that research," he said. "These are job-creating opportunities."
We have overestimated the cost and difficulty of such projects, according to Inslee. We had to commit to the Apollo project, and then we succeeded. "We are on the cusp of enormous technological transformation, but it cannot happen at the pace it has to happen unless we have (the pressure that cap-an-trade would exert),” he said. “As long as we can burn coal that is not sequestered, it strangles in the bed all of these new companies that are champing at the bit to start getting going." "This pace of global warming is not Al Gore's schedule,” he said, adding that it is a fact of nature and it is happening much faster than had been predicted even one year ago.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said, "By the year 2020, our country is expected to need 40 percent more electricity generation than we're using today. Coal has to be part of that picture." It's about 53 percent of total national energy generation.
We are not building new coal plants, and China is building many, he said, “and they're not using carbon capture.”
Pointing out that efficient carbon capture is 10-15 years away, but cap-and-trade starts immediately and benchmarks begin in 2012, Upton says that the technology should precede the regulations.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) agrees: "This is like (anesthetizing) the patient while the researchers are still trying to figure out how to operate." He characterized cap-and-trade as a redistribution of wealth from businesses to individuals. "Far from being a job creator, I think this could be a huge job killer."
He said that when cap-and-trade decreased sulfur dioxide emissions, circumstances were different.
All of the participants at the conference agreed on the reality and the danger of climate change, but debated whether various alternative energies are practical, and whether cap-and-trade should drive the reduction of carbon emissions or await more cost-effective technology.

Read My Lips: No New Bailouts

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News


Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) said President Obama’s budget “taxes too much” and presented an outline of their alternative.

The President's budget would add up to $3,100 per year per family in increased energy costs via the cap and trade policy, which their statement referred to as “cap-and-tax.” Both representatives also said that many small businesses would pay more in direct taxes. Pence acknowledged that that was so only if the business owner files as an individual and is making over $250,000, but that is commonly done in order to avoid the higher corporate rate. In effect, those small business owners whose personal profits exceed a quarter million dollars per year would be forced to choose between the already higher corporate or the now higher personal tax bracket.

Roskam said that many of the small businesses in his area were “in survival mode.” It was unclear whether he was including those whose personal profits would create such a tax dilemma.

Pence was emphatic that the “first principle is no new bailouts.” He repeated three times that the majority of Republicans had opposed bailouts even when their leadership supported the strategy.

The other principles outlined were: no tax hikes, limiting the federal budget from growing faster than family budgets, reforming the financial system, controlling energy costs with increased exploration, as well as developing new energy sources and supporting long-term price stability.

The nuts and bolts of how to do those things will be the topic of several subsequent presentations, Pence finished.