S1733: Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act

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AndyH

Well-known member
Joined
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Senate Bill 1733, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act came to life today.

Details and full text of the bill is posted on Senator Kerry's website.

For too long, Washington has let oil companies, lobbyists, and special interests maximize their profits and minimize our progress. Our dependence on foreign oil has hurt our economy, helped our enemies, and put our national security at risk. It's time to invest in energy solutions that are made in America, and work for America. It's time to take back control.

The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S.1733) will get tough on corporate pollution and put American ingenuity to work to dramatically improve every facet of the way America generates and uses energy. It will create millions of new, good-paying jobs, protect our air and water from dangerous pollution, and secure our children's future by making America more energy independent. And it does not raise the federal deficit by one single dime.


12 May statement from Governor Schwartzenegger:

Sacramento, California - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement after U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) introduced the American Power Act:

“I am encouraged by this new effort by Senators Kerry and Lieberman to address the challenges of clean energy and climate change at the federal level with a comprehensive energy policy. California has been an unparalleled leader in clean energy, pioneering policies that have benefited the entire nation, and we must be able to continue our important, groundbreaking work that will both improve the environment and help our economy. I continue to believe we need a bipartisan, national climate change commitment that will reduce our dependence on oil, protect our environment, grow our economy and put Americans back to work. I look forward to reviewing the American Power Act and working with Congress and the Obama Administration to ensure it builds on the progress states have made, like here in California.”


12 May statement from T. Boone Pickens:
Army:

Today, Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) unveiled their energy legislation—following is what I had to say about it:
“Senators Kerry and Lieberman are to be commended for a plan that recognizes the economic and national security threat of our ever-increasing dependence on foreign oil, particularly OPEC oil. Achieving energy security is not easy and I applaud their focus on a broad energy package that includes replacing foreign oil/diesel/gasoline with cleaner, abundant domestic natural gas in America’s heavy duty vehicle fleets. I look forward to working with them in the coming weeks to focus attention on that aspect of their legislation. More than 1.6 million Americans have signed on to my campaign to solve the foreign oil crisis, and I’m going to see to it that this objective is achieved as the legislative process evolves. Using natural gas as a transportation fuel is a non-partisan issue. The time to act is now.”

-- Boone
 
An easy way to send a message to your Senators courtesy of the Sierra Club:
https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=4282

This video is from December 2009 as the Copenhagen Climate Summit ended:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfP0lUMPd7A[/youtube]

From The Matrix (1999). Agent Smith explains what the human race is:
"Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure."

Can we turn this ship around? Or are we yeast?
 
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/press-center/releases2/energy-bill-is-a-dirty-energy

We appreciate Senators Kerry and Lieberman for their work to address the urgent issue of climate change, and are concerned that this is largely a dirty energy bailout bill.

In the midst of a disastrous oil spill, we have a bill that incentivizes off-shore oil drilling. In the aftermath of a horrific explosion in the West Virginia coal mine, we have a bill that proposes to subsidize coal. And as Nashville dries out from historic flooding that may well be climate change related, we have a bill which does not present meaningful reductions in fossil fuel use and carbon pollution necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. It seems that after a year and a half wrangling, the only people who can be happy with this bill are the fossil fuel industry lobbyists.
 
This is going to sound strange, given my moniker, but all politics is compromise. This bill started as a joint effort by (D) John Kerry, (I) Joe Lieberman, and (R) Lindsey Graham. It was carefully designed to pull support from across a broad spectrum of political positions.

Then Harry Reid bollixed the deal by switching the schedule due to the Arizona immigration law and his own election problems in Nevada. That upset Lindsey Graham so much that he pulled out, and he probably took all other Republican support with him.

So now we are left with a bill that is much less than Democrats or environmentalists want, but probably can't pass the Senate. Sorry, Greenpeace, I often agree with you, but it is urgent that we do something, and you seem to believe doing nothing is better than passing an imperfect bill.
 
planet4ever said:
This is going to sound strange, given my moniker, but all politics is compromise.

But after so many compromises the bill becomes a big fat pork project. It will not do anything useful - it is now just a sham.

BTW, Graham was just looking for an excuse.
 
The more I know about our political system the less I want to know. :(

Compromises and pork aside, what's it going to take to reset our energy focus at least a little bit? The petroleum industry appears to have much more influence on Washington than any dozen citizens. Unless we citizens can out spend the industry and their lobbyists (good luck...), and unless enough citizens make their voices heard, I don't expect our overall system to change until there's a significant crisis to break us out of what's essentially a trance.

I completely know that we CAN. I just don't know if we WILL. :(

OpenSecrets.org makes it easy to track the cash flowing into D.C.

I've written and telephoned my Senators and Representative. Below is a response received from Senator Hutchison (R-TX). She's not in favor of carbon legislation. I'm not surprised. According to Open Secrets, four of her top 5 contributors are either oil companies or law firms specializing in energy.

From: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 1:41 PM
To: a...
Subject: Constituent Response From Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison

Dear Friend:

Thank you for contacting me regarding cap-and-trade legislation. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

I strongly oppose the cap-and-trade legislation being considered in the 111th Congress. In our effort to reduce emissions, I believe we must invest in alternative sources of energy. Wind, solar, nuclear, and biomass are clean, safe and effective sources of power. Their increased use would create thousands of jobs and allow us to produce energy for Americans, by Americans.

Some Members of Congress have expressed their intent to mandate a cap-and-trade policy to be imposed on all Americans. I believe that cap-and-trade would increase energy prices. In 2008, Peter Orszag, who then served as the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, and who now serves as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, testified before the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Finance about the implications of a cap-and-trade regime. In his testimony, Director Orszag stated, “Under a cap-and-trade program, firms would not ultimately bear most of the costs of the allowances, but instead would pass them along to their customers in the form of higher prices.”

For this reason, I believe that a cap-and-trade approach to address climate change would be onerous and would adversely impact the economy. It could create added economic hardship for farmers, ranchers, workers and small businesses, in addition to consumers. The last thing our nation needs during this time of economic hardship is higher energy prices and higher levels of unemployment due to a federal mandate passed down from Washington.

As your Senator, I will continue to fight against this misguided legislation. As I continue to stand against cap and trade, I will keep your comments in mind. I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope you will not hesitate to contact me on any issue that is important to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator

284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5922 (tel)
202-224-0776 (fax)
http://hutchison.senate.gov
 
As has been said many times, we have the best government money can buy.
Too bad it's big business that's doing the "buying" :(
 
After cop15 I've become fairly pessimistic about the chances of avoiding catastrophic climate change.

John Michael Greer explains the reason better than I can.

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2009/12/human-ecology-of-collapse.html

Nobody, but nobody, is willing to deal with the harsh reality of what a carbon-neutral society would have to be like. This is what makes the blame game so popular, and it also provides the impetus behind meaningless gestures of the sort that are on the table at Copenhagen. It’s a common piece of rhetoric these days to say that “failure is not an option,” but this sort of feckless thoughtstopper misses the point as totally as any human utterance possibly could. Failure is always an option; when trying to prevent it will lead to highly unpleasant personal consequences, without actually having the least chance of preventing it, a strong case can be made that the most viable option for anyone in a leadership position is to enjoy the party while it lasts, and hope you can duck the blame when it all comes crashing down.
 
evnow said:
After cop15 I've become fairly pessimistic about the chances of avoiding catastrophic climate change.

Unfortunately you might be right - especially if we wait for our near-sighted politicians to lead the way.
 
Let's all fly to Copenhagen and have a meeting to discuss the importance of eliminating carbon emissions.

I'm not sure who the bigger dumbasses are.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
Let's all fly to Copenhagen and have a meeting to discuss the importance of eliminating carbon emissions.

I'm not sure who the bigger dumbasses are.

I hope you're not suggesting that the problems will be solved when politicians stop flying to meetings?
 
Consider making any kinds of "contributions" to legislators illegal?

Or, if this "political" system will not do what is needed, then perhaps it is time to replace the system?
 
Another easy way to email our Senators - courtesy of Repower America.


"[T]he Senate leadership is saying that they're waiting to hear the public’s reaction before deciding if they'll push strong legislation this year."
http://cpaf.repoweramerica.org/senateactionnow


Einstein suggests that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. He also reminds us that a problem can't be solved with the same minds that caused it.

It's up to us to help cure our government officials of their insanity - and we'll have to show them a new way to think to complete the cure. If we don't, we don't have to right to complain when we're living in the next New Orleans.
 
AndyH said:
LTLFTcomposite said:
Let's all fly to Copenhagen and have a meeting to discuss the importance of eliminating carbon emissions.

I'm not sure who the bigger dumbasses are.

I hope you're not suggesting that the problems will be solved when politicians stop flying to meetings?

Maybe. Government doesn't solve problems anyway.

And if the solutions involve me having to pee in the dark while they live the life of Riley they can shove it.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
Maybe. Government doesn't solve problems anyway.

And if the solutions involve me having to pee in the dark while they live the life of Riley they can shove it.

If they don't solve problems, who does?

I don't care what your evacuation needs are - as long as you don't do it in my drinking water. ;)
 
garygid said:
Consider making any kinds of "contributions" to legislators illegal?
The Supreme Court has decided that money is "free speech", even though I think that concept is idiotic. (They should have asked me.)

Actually, Congress has tried to make "gifts" illegal, though there are way too many loopholes. What is supposedly constitutionally protected is (now) unlimited "donations" to campaigns. I have a very simple solution to that. You can contribute as much as you want to a campaign, but only if it's your own money and you can legally vote for the candidate or proposition. Since corporations and unions and Political Action Committees can't vote ...
 
The problem with US political system is that - it is built for stability rather than agility. There is a complex relationship among the congress, whitehouse, parties & public opinion.

Any change that has large ideological / commercial interests against it will be difficult to make - as we found in insurance reform and again find in climate change. Infact the bills have to be so diluted as to be substantially ineffective.

[politics]It also boils down to how "united" a party is. When Democrats were in a minority they found it almost impossible to stop any legislation - but Republicans who are now in a minority (smaller numbers than Dems were) routinely stop any and every legislation. This is because Republicans are highly united - they are now the party of small tent. Dems have always been a party of the big tent which means they find it very difficult to stay united, either in support or opposition.[/politics]

In anycase, this "lost" decade is where the future generations will point their finger at. While China & India made strong progress, US & EU essentially lost this decade to various bubbles, wars and ideological battles. In the end, the butterfly ballot of FL would have changed the future of mankind.
 
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