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Posted on Tue, Oct. 27, 2009 11:03 PM
Clean-energy bill pushed
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WASHINGTON | The Obama administration warned Tuesday that the U.S. could slip further behind China and other countries in clean-energy development if Congress fails to pass climate legislation, even as the bill’s chief author acknowledged that reducing heat-trapping pollution will increase energy costs.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate panel that the U.S. has stumbled in the clean-energy race and to catch up Congress must enact comprehensive legislation that puts the first-ever limits on the gases blamed for global warming.
“The United States … has fallen behind,” Chu said. “But I remain confident that we can make up the ground.”
He said enactment of climate legislation is the “critical step (that) will drive investment decisions toward clean energy.”
Chu was one of five administration officials, including three Cabinet secretaries, to push for legislation before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee as it opened debate on a 925-page bill that would reduce greenhouse gases by about 80 percent by mid-century.
His comments were echoed by Democrats, including the bill’s chief author, Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who told the panel, “America’s leadership is on the line.”
But in a replay of what happened in the House, which passed its version of the bill in June, Republicans and some moderate Democrats scoffed at the cost, which would put in place a cap-and-trade system that would put a price on heat-trapping pollution and allow companies to buy and sell permits to meet emissions targets.
Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the panel’s top Republican and a skeptic of the science behind global warming, said Americans would not stomach the expense.
“This is something the American people can’t tolerate and I don’t think they will,” Inhofe said.
An Environmental Protection Agency analysis released late Friday said the average household would pay an additional $80 to $111 a year to power their homes and fuel their cars if the bill becomes law and businesses pass the cost of reducing pollution along to consumers.
While the legislation is likely to clear the environment panel, as many as five other committees have jurisdiction over the bill before it goes to the floor.
Posted on Tue, Oct. 27, 2009 11:03 PM
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