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Posted on 05/18/2009 4:23:42 AM PDT by Delacon
The markup, which could stretch over several days, probably provides House Republicans with their best opportunity for offering changes to a bill that will likely see limited amendments on the floor.
“Our folks are united against cap-and-trade,” Energy and Commerce member Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said of the carbon control policy being pushed by Democrats.
Last week, Democrats agreed among themselves on a plan setting national standards for renewable energy and electricity use. Moreover, the plan would limit carbon emissions through a cap-and-trade system that would auction off or give away credits for emitting greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
Ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) will offer an alternative plan that would still set carbon emission standards for new coal and natural gas plants but grandfather in all existing plants. Current plants would receive accelerated depreciation on technology that they install to improve their efficiency.
Barton — a longtime ally of the oil industry and skeptic of the scientific basis of global warming — believes the Democratic bill does not provide companies enough time to develop technologies that could limit carbon emissions. He said the plans for limiting carbon should be held off on until at least 2015.
Barton and Upton said they will oppose any bill that calls for cap-and-trade, saying they believe such a system would send energy prices soaring. Upton said he doubts there are 60 votes in the Senate needed to advance a bill with cap-and-trade provisions.
But another group of Republicans wrote a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) calling for a more conciliatory approach and outlining provisions that must be in the bill to win their support. The group includes Energy and Commerce member Mary Bono Mack (Calif.) and Reps. Vernon Ehlers (Mich.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Mike Castle (Del.), John McHugh (N.Y.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.).
The current legislation “fails to reflect the current economic challenges which all Americans face and fails to include major opportunities for achieving energy independence,” the GOP lawmakers wrote. They want the final bill to call for the safe use of coal and nuclear energy, require compliance by other industrial nations and keep energy costs in check.
Despite the coming onslaught of GOP amendments, Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said he expects the committee to pass the bill before lawmakers leave at the end of the week for the Memorial Day recess.
The agreement among committee Democrats — worked out after two weeks of arduous negotiations — addressed concerns raised by some Members from coal- and oil-producing states by giving carbon emitters more pollution credits and phasing in the new standards at a slower rate.
The lead negotiator for the moderate Democrats, Rep. Rick Boucher (Va.), who hails from a coal-rich part of Virginia, said he would vote for the bill in committee this week and is urging his colleagues to follow suit.
But Boucher has “remaining concerns” that he intends to address as the legislation moves to the floor. Pelosi said she wants the bill passed before lawmakers leave for August recess.
Already, Waxman has given in on some concerns raised by moderate Democrats about rising energy prices by agreeing to offer free pollution credits to some utility companies. Waxman said he made the concession “primarily to protect the rate payer.”
This afternoon’s session of the markup is unlikely to get beyond opening statements from the 59-member panel.
ping
Mark Kirk. Every time.
B.S. Waxman didn't make concessions to primarily protect the rate payer. He bought off several dems opposed to the bill by promising to give utility companies within their states carbon credits that they could sell to other businesses not so lucky to have powerful lobbyists in congress. This won't protect the rate payer. We are going to get slammed.
Economic Suicide
It will be 38 degrees here in Central VA and frost in the Valley.... Pelosi, after her ill advised breakdown, and her brethren hold no credibility on anything at all so if they do this they/we will pay for it as we become Argentina.
Absolutely NUTS without India, China and Brazil at the table as an all or nothing gambit
Why bother, sit on your hands, The fraud will out itself.
I’m finishing a book called The Ghost Map. It’s about the 1854 cholera epidemic in Soho, London. The Brand street pump epidemic. The book did a very good job of explaining the miasma theory of disease which was debunked soon after this epidemic. He explained that the sense of smell is the most primitive and therefore any scientific theory which involves the sense of smell is very difficult to debunk. The way he explained it made me keep thinking of “climate change” and Al Gore. It was also in the mid 19th century that the concept of big government first began to arise - the idea that a central government should involve itself directly in people’s lives. Finally, he gave a great analysis of a classic case of unintended consequences. At about this time the people who were pushing the miasma theory of disease, the intelligencia and politicians, decided that the solution to the problem was to outlaw all the private septic tanks in people’s backyards and basements. That did make the city smell better but the wonderful engineering feat of channeling all that waste into the Themes also turned the river into an open sewer and a breeding place for disease. Cholera spiked. Good book. I recommend it although towards the end he rambles about all the green philosophy and goes on and on about how wonderful cities are.
Exactly right, This is a massive tax on everyone for the benefit of the chosen elites. Nothing more. It is being festered on us with the acceptance of a brainwashed mass of mind-numbed bots who just adore the BO, and who suck up the Media’s felonious lies.
and again, no sunspots today....http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/
Y'see.
I read it too and now recall his strange diatribe at the end.
Absolutely NUTS without India, China and Brazil at the table as an all or nothing gambit There fixed it.
lol
Sent:
Dear Represenative Castle,
I am writing you to ask that you oppose the American Clean Energy and Security Act that hits the floor today. This bill will raise the cost of everything while not achieving what it sets out to do which is reduce global warming. It will cost Americans jobs as companys move their factories to countries that don’t have a cap and trade policy and for those companies that can’t move, they will be at a competitive disadvantage with countries like India and China. This bill will open the door to massive corruption as energy companies and other special interest look for ways to game the system. Cap and trade is nothing more than a regressive tax that will hit the middle and lower classes the hardest at a time when we are already reeling from the recession. Reports are out that you and others are interested in some sort of compromise. I urge you to not compromise at all. This bill is that bad. I hope that you will stand with most other republican representatives and make every effort to see this bill defeated. When election time comes, Americans will need a clear choice between the party that raised prices on everything, lost american jobs and emptied our wallets and the party that tried to prevent all this. Please be on the right side.
Respectfully,
Here’s what Senator Mel Martinez (RINO-FL) wrote in response to my letter:
“I believe that the threat of climate change is real, and I am working with my colleagues in the Senate to regulate and reduce greenhouse emissions. As we consider climate change legislation, we need to ensure that the laws we pass will in fact reduce carbon emissions and lessen the threat of catastrophic climate change.”
This so-called Republican senator is kissing Obama’s butt.
The whole idea of “man-made global warming” is a pagan religion. Obama and his Congressional Socialists (which includes a number of RINOS) think they are high priests of Global Warming, beating on the drums, praying to the Greenhouse Gas gods, spreading ignorance around the country.
Obama wants Cap & Trade, which would be a death sentence for our economy. I have to wonder if Obama and the other Socialist supporters of this legislation are aware of basic facts. For example: 1) greenhouse gases are not evil, they are essential to keeping the earth warm enough for humans; 2) the most common greenhouse gas is water vapor; 3) CO2 is not pollution, it is essential for plants and humans; 4) CO2 is only a trace element in the atmosphere at 380 parts per million; 5) humans and their activities account for only 3% of CO2 emissions each year; 6) the earth has had cycles of cooling and warming about every 1,500 years due to variations in the sun’s activity and our orbit around the sun; 7) these cycles are beyond human control; 8) about 1,000 years ago, Greenland had vineyards; 9) the earth is cooling now, not warming relative to prior decades; and 10) a major reduction of sun spots in recent years suggests a coming mini ice age.
An excerpt from the March 2009 issue of The American Spectator: “All scientists agree that if man-made global warming is real, it would leave a fingerprint in the form of temperatures increasing with altitude in the tropical troposphere portion of the atmosphere up to a hotspot about 10 kilometers above the surface, reflecting the pattern of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Warming due to solar variations or other natural causes would not leave such a fingerprint pattern. Recently, higher-quality temperature data from balloons and satellites ... enables us to settle the man-made global warming debate definitively. The data from weather balloons shows the opposite pattern: no increasing warming with altitude, but rather a slight cooling with no hotspot. The satellite data shows the same result: no increasing temperature with altitude, no hotspot, no fingerprint, maybe again a slight cooling with altitude. Game over. QED. The global warming empire is rattling around but has not and cannot come up with an effective response. The data is the data. The science is the science. Man-made global warming is a hoax developed to serve powerful special interests.” (This was written by Peter Ferrara.)
Obama may not know these things, or he may be choosing to ignore the facts in order to create a huge new bureaucracy of socialist government control over our lives. Cap & trade would cause a huge Decrease in GDP along with a huge Increase in energy costs for Americans, and massive unemployment - probably higher than 15%.
Everyone should write to his or her Congressmoron. Remind them of the facts and the damage that would be caused by “cap & trade”.
“Everyone should write to his or her Congressmoron. Remind them of the facts and the damage that would be caused by “cap & trade””.
Good post. Contact your congress critters.
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Anyone read the latest EPA ruling on Ethanol and biofuel standards. When the “best science available” is not supporting the political blow-hards, then form a committee of “peers” to reach consensus. Dilution is the solution, even on scientific committees!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20090514/ts_usnews/ethanolrulingatestforobamaadministration
They are trying to make capitalism fail.
Then comes the fascism.
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