President Obama has repeatedly asked for “comprehensive energy legislation” to set federal standards for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and curbs on air pollution. On May 14, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), chairman of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee, released a draft of what could become “The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.” It should significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, help end U.S. dependence on oil and coal, and create “millions of green jobs.”
Ironically, the release of the bill’s text came just a few days after gasoline prices had jumped 12 cents, or 6 percent, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the U.S. had "roughly 4.8 unemployed workers for every available job today," up 280 percent from 2007. Such data, however, do not impress the polluting industries and the global warming deniers.
Rep. Markey conceded that his bill cannot advance out of the 58-member Energy Committee without the support of Democrats, if not Republicans, from districts with sizable refineries, coal mines, power plants, and other heavily energy-consuming industries. There the burning of millions of tons of fossil fuels annually generates millions of tons of greenhouse gases. In districts with heavily polluting industries, members of Congress stand to lose votes and financial contributions if they favor major clean energy legislation.
For the Waxman-Markey bill to have any chance of passage, its supporters will have to make sizable concessions, such as smaller pollution reduction requirements over longer time periods. That, however, would result in slower progress toward the desired clean-energy standards and less demand for “green jobs.”
In a hearing about the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) lamented that, “for as long as there’s been pollution, there has been a constant battle with polluters who don’t want to pay the costs of their pollution, either preventing or cleaning it up. They’d like to just dump it and have it be somebody else’s problem.”
Whitehouse also stressed that carbon polluters, such as electric utilities and oil companies, have spent nearly $80 million on lobbying just in the first quarter of 2009. “By comparison, environmental organizations have spent a combined $4.7 million, and the entire renewable energy industry has spent $7.5 million, both less than the $9.3 million spent by Exxon Mobil alone.”
Congressmen of both parties are making a concerted effort to water the bill’s clean energy requirements down. Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) and others claim that a cap on carbon pollution "could have a negative impact on our economy by raising utility rates on consumers." Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) charges that the bill "forces the petrochemical industry to "bear the brunt of new costs."
Rep Joe Barton (R-TX), the leader of the Congressional opposition to clean energy legislation, has offered more than 200 amendments to the bill. He also has threatened to force the Committee to read the entire 650-page bill out loud, in an attempt to delay action.
Koch Industries, the second-largest private business empire in the U.S. and heavily involved in petroleum, chemicals, and energy, was reported to have provided over $120 million in the past twenty years to anti-regulatory and global warming-denying organizations, such as the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Federalist Society, and the Mercatus Center.
In a fierce attack on the Waxman-Markey proposal, the Heritage Foundation claimed that the bill “offers nothing more than subsidies and mandates for unsuccessful, unproven energy sources coupled with taxes on reliable energy sources that falsely claim to stimulate the economy by investing in clean technology and creating green jobs. This government-centric approach will destroy jobs and drive up energy prices for years to come.”
Rep. Barton wants to give “a grim green award” to anyone who can read the Waxman-Markey bill without laughing.