Here is the BS form letter I got yesterday after emailing Rep BART GORDON of Tennessee.. Democrat of course.
Here it is in its entirety.
Enjoy.
Dear Mr. X,
Thank you for sharing your concerns about H.R. 2454 the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES).
I have given this legislation a lot of thought. Although it is not perfect, I am convinced this bill is not only good for working families in Middle Tennessee, but vital to our region's economic future. This is just the start of the legislative process that will allow more review and an opportunity to improve the bill. The merits of this legislation have been heavily distorted, and I want to take this opportunity to lay out the truth behind the bill and help you understand how I reached my decision.
In 2007 the Supreme Court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. If Congress does not act on the issue, the EPA is required to act, and will do so in a way that is less likely to take into account the individual challenges each region of the country faces. The Senate drafted several bills in response to this mandated action to solve the CO2 problem, but I believe their bills were impractical. The Senate bills produced cost estimates from $1,000 to $3,000 a year per household. These costs are unacceptable.
ACES is different. Energy companies, environmental groups, and business groups all had a seat at the table to negotiate this bill. After taking into account the challenges the country was facing and the comments and concerns of these groups, the Energy and Commerce Committee wrote a bill that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (the same group that reported the costs of the Senate bills) says will cost $175 a year for families at its height in 2020 or about $15 a month. These costs will be more than offset by the savings in energy efficiency each household will achieve annually, and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that will be created.
I hear all the time from Tennesseans who are upset about high utility bills As Chair of House Science and Technology Committee I've heard from experts and studied the issue to see what relief can be provided. For example, I learned that a significant amount of our monthly electrical bills goes to energy we're not even using. Because of inefficiencies in the 50-year old electric grid, some energy doesn't make it into our homes, while the energy that does is often used inefficiently. This bill upgrades the grid, an action expected to save 7% on utility bills.
This is not just a climate bill. This is a jobs and energy independence bill. The 6th District is projected to gain more than 4500 jobs directly because of this legislation. These jobs aren't all engineers and scientists. Half of these new jobs will be blue-collar, manufacturing jobs that do not require a high school diploma. Tennessee is hurting right now. Our unemployment rate is more than 10% statewide. The fact of the matter is, a lot of the jobs we've lost are not coming back and we've got to think outside the box if we're going to revive our manufacturing sector.
China is now the world's leading exporter of wind technology, and they continue to invest heavily in green jobs. Meanwhile, our region is hemorrhaging jobs overseas. If we give up this industrial sector to foreign business, we will never regain leadership in this arena. The cost of inaction is that we will be purchasing these technologies from foreign plants and employing foreign workers. Tennessee will soon be home to 3 billion-dollar solar plants. Nissan recently announced a two billion-dollar investment in electric vehicle manufacturing at its Smyrna plant. Make no mistake, Tennessee is a green jobs state, and the jobs ACES creates will be Tennessee jobs. We'll need everything from mechanics to build wind turbines, to truck drivers to transport products, to carpenters to install solar panels for these jobs.
Oil prices are rising, and working families are already paying more than they can afford on gas. The United States imports over 60 percent of the oil we consume, making our national security and economy increasingly vulnerable to unfriendly regimes and terrorist threats. ACES will put us on the road to energy independence by driving the development of home-grown fuels and reducing our consumption of foreign oil. We'll no longer be hostage to the gas price spikes that have become a summer tradition.
I take seriously your concerns about this legislation. At the end of the day though, I believe the need to reduce our dependence on foreign energy, the need to create green energy jobs, and the need to mitigate climate change required moving the process forward for the benefit of the working families of Tennessee. Please do not hesitate to do so again in the future if I may be of assistance to you or your family.
Stay in touch,
BART GORDON Member of Congress
“Reduce our dependence on foriegn energy” while we can’t drill for our own oil or mine our coal.They lie to our face, then spit in it.