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.

G.I.V.E. for Volunteerism

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

The legislative stars were out for H.R. 1388 – Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act, which supports volunteerism, partially with a stipend or grant toward higher education.

Backed by phalanx of representatives from Be the Change, AmeriCorps alums, Experience Corps, Serve Next, Survivor Corps, DC Central Kitchen, the court-appointed special advocates of DC, and the Young Marines, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) thanked everyone who worked on the bill and compared Obama’s effect on this generation with the way John Kennedy had inspired her and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

Hoyer said, “In one year, the millions of Americans (who volunteered) generated in excess of $150 billion. Every dollar we invest in AmeriCorps gives anywhere from $1.50 to $3.90 in return. Boy, oh boy, wouldn’t we like to have a lot of companies who did as well as that.” He cited several volunteer home-weatherizing projects around the country.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) said volunteerism is for everyone: young, retired, and those displaced from their jobs.

Perriello, who has spent his entire career working for non-profits in Africa and the U.S., said, “What we’ve all found is that service isn’t just a matter of giving back to our community, it was a matter of forming our very character. Every American feels a call to service, this cannot be something that only rich young people can afford. This is a bill that is not about anything other than enabling young people to answer that call.” He also pointed out the expertise that volunteers gain doing this work, and the need to bank those skills against emergencies and disasters. “We’ve found that once people have volunteered a little bit, they become a volunteer for life.“Volunteerism is addictive,” he finished.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) introduced Survivor Corps US Program Manager Capt. Scott Quilty. While leading a patrol in the Sunni Triangle in Oct. ’06, he was a victim of a roadside bomb,losing his right arm and leg.

“Service saved my life twice. Veterans and their families will be given the chance to continue serving their community, by this legislation,” Quilty said. “ Service doesn’t have to end when we take of the uniform, and it shouldn’t end.”

Miller predicted strong bipartisan support in Congress today and tomorrow.

Addendum: H.R. 1388 passed the House 03/18/09

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.

“Have They No Shame?”

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer expressed the “outrage that all Americans feel” at AIG executives taking large bonuses on taxpayer money. “These people tried to separate risk from responsibility,” he said, but he was unsure whether there was any legal way to reclaim the money. “The right question is, how can they take these bonuses? Have they no shame? No sense of decency?” The right thing, he continued, would be for them to return the bonuses.
“They thought they would never have to pay the piper. The piper is being paid; not by them, but by the taxpayers,” he finished.

Hoyer also criticized a remark by former Vice President Dick Cheney two days ago that,”I don’t think you can blame the Bush administration for the creation of those (economic) circumstances.” Hoyer provided various quotes from Cheney, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, Republican Leader John Boehner, and former President George Bush to the effect that Republicans were not responsible for the current financial crisis.

“The last administration started with a January growth of 164,000 jobs. The Obama administration took over in a January that lost 351,000 jobs,” he said. Hoyer contrasted the $5.6 trillion surplus that Bush started with against the $4.5 trillion deficit that Obama inherited. “It’s mind-boggling that the former vice president simply said, ‘well, it’s not our fault.’”

It’s Not Just The Heat, It’s The Carbon

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Rep. Steve Kagan, MD (D-Wis.) hosted a conference of immunologists, and their first order of business was to tell reporters that climate change is and has been harming human health.

Paul Epstein, MD, MPH, Center for Health & the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School, said that asthma rates have quadrupled since 1980. Much of this is due to CO2. The greenhouse gas stimulates plants, including weeds, to grow more prolifically, and through longer seasons. Not only does this mean more pollen, but the pollen itself is more allergenic. In fact, he said, poison ivy is becoming stronger as well, leading to more severe reactions.

Biofuels aren’t helping; diesel particles in the air act as carriers for pollen and other allergens.

The ozone produced by combustion engines, while it might be helpful in the upper atmosphere, irritates the lungs.

Finally, the geographic range of allergenic weeds is expanding.

CO2 means, more and nastier pollen, for longer periods, in more places, he concluded.

He then addressed malaria, which is seen higher and higher up the mountains of endemic areas, more subtly in more geographic areas over time, and, less subtly, for longer seasons each year. Malaria is following the warm climate farther and farther from the equator.

Other ills following this pattern include Dengue Fever and Yellow Fever. In fact, a great many of the diseases you never want to have are spreading their range, he said.

Jeffrey Demain, MD, FAAAAI, Allergy & Immunology Center of Alaska, said insects also are more numerous for longer seasons, leading to more bites, stings, infections, and even deaths.

“We have 12 villages that are imperiled; they’re falling into the sea.” Permafrost roads are only passable for half as many days a year as formerly, limiting opportunities for subsistence hunters.

“The question,” he said, “is whether Alaska is an aberration, or a window (to the future).”

David Peden, MD, FAAAAI, Center for Environmental Medicine Asthma & Lung Biology, said that ozone and pollution don’t just irritate the lungs, but leave them more irritable to all allergens for days after exposure. The number of respiratory emergency department visits dropped sharply when traffic patterns in Atlanta were altered to accommodate Olympic athletes in 1996.

Dr. Kagen said, “there can be no doubt that climate change is taking place at a more rapid rate than anyone had expected.” He presented supporting data at the conference.

All four of the physicians agreed that carbon emissions were doing unequivocal harm to human health.