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Yesterday's vote in the U.S. House passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act was a crucial step forward for our country in terms of energy, environmental, and economic policy. Unfortunately, our own Congressmen Lee Terry, Adrian Smith, and Jeff Fortenberry all voted against this legislation and its cap and trade program that would create a market for trading pollution credits and investing in pollution offsets beyond progressively tighter caps on carbon emissions faced by those slower to adopt cleaner fuels and new technologies.
"This is a bad investment," said Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. Businesses will be allowed to continue emitting greenhouse gases but will be required to purchase allowances from the government, an arrangement Terry described as extortion. "Tony Soprano would be proud," Terry said....
Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said the bill would mean billions for Wall Street at the expense of electric utility ratepayers. "It creates intentionally an increased cost of electricity and energy in general that I don't think our economy can afford," Smith said.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., said the "cap-and-trade" system may have theoretical merit, but there are concerns about its practical application. "I fear the bill may not effectively reduce emissions and could significantly weaken our nation's manufacturing and agricultural sectors," he said.
To his credit, Fortenberry at least acknowledges the "theoretical merit" of this legislation. However, his fear that it won't "effectively reduce emissions" doesn't carry a whole lot of weight when the alternatives put forward by his Republican peers do nothing at all to reduce those same emissions. This is a classic case of a politician paying lip service to a problem when he lacks the courage and conviction to take any action towards a real solution.
For too long, corporations, utilities, and consumers have been able to get by on the cheap without considering the impact of their choices on the environment and on our children's futures. Under cap and trade, our conscience as a nation will finally have a voice in the marketplace, speaking the only language that's understood - simple dollars and cents.
Terry and Smith echo the usual Republican talking points by renaming the policy "cap and tax" and the "national energy tax." This sort of simple-minded fear-mongering is to be expected. No doubt, the burden of added costs does ultimately rest on the backs of the American people. But, so too does all of the benefit as the government adds disincentives with actual teeth for those who stand in the way of progress and who hold too tightly to a status quo in which we'd continue on the path to our planet's ruin.
In 2020, every Nebraska household is looking at added energy costs of $179 a year if the current cap and trade proposal were signed into law. That's no pittance, but I trust that our children would see it as a very small price to pay for a cleaner and more sustainable future.
As for Terry's suggestion that cap and trade is somehow a government-run extortion befitting of the Mafia, this silly and childish exaggeration may pay-off in contributions from powerful energy corporations but it's an insult to the voters he represents. Terry certainly isn't helped by the fact that the "all-of-the-above" approach he supports amounts to little more than a return to the failed energy policies of the Bush Administration.
Probably most sad is the fact that both Terry and Smith continue to buy into the false promise of more drilling in Alaska. Frankly, neither Terry nor Smith can be taken seriously in addressing the challenges presented by climate change - a problem both men have reluctantly acknowledged - so long as they persist in their stupid and dangerous "drill, baby, drill"-mentality.
After so many years of inaction, our country's road to energy independence can no longer be divorced from our environmental concerns. Terry and Smith embrace one interest at obvious expense to the other - to our peril and, quite possibly, to our children's doom.
Of course, the overriding justification for this short-sighted thinking is Terry and Smith's supposed concern for the U.S. economy - as opposed to serving the selfish interests of the energy industry at a time of record-breaking profits. On this point, I think I'll let President Barack Obama do the talking:
Well said, Mr. President. After Nebraska's Representatives failed this test in the House, the debate now moves to the U.S. Senate, where no immediate action is expected. Let us hope Senators Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns will actually rise to the challenges we face and not fail us in a similar fashion.
