Kerry-Lieberman Would ‘Crash Dive’ Economy Back to the 1870s

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today made the following statement on the global warming bill announced by U.S. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.:

“Put me down as skeptical of Kerry-Lieberman’s chances despite the uptick in political pressure now because, as the BBC aptly put it this morning, ‘After the elections, the Democrats may well lose their stranglehold on Congress.’

“Its authors say their new bill isn’t warmed over cap and trade, but there aren’t many differences between Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Lieberman where it counts – Government-set prices on CO2, sweetheart deals for supportive industries and states with their own fledgling cap-and-trade systems, and economic punishments for anybody who doesn’t get with the program. And just like with Waxman-Markey, we’ll need to crash dive the economy back to something resembling the 1870s in order to reach the anti-global warming targets that Kerry-Lieberman sets for 2020, 2030 and 2050.

“I think these kinds of efforts fail largely because most Americans refuse to accept that global warming means our best days are behind us. Nobody I know thinks it’s good that a reenactment of their great-great-grandparents’ lives is the best they can hope to pass on to their children.”

House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans May 12, 2010 2322A Rayburn House Office Building | Washington, DC 20515 | (202) 225-3641

Sen. Inhofe on Fox Business Declares Senate Climate Bill Dead VIDEO

Kerry-Lieberman: Cap-and-Trade With a Gas Tax. Inhofe Says Bill Will Kill Jobs, Hit the Heartland Hard

Washington, D.C. - Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, commented today on the Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade bill and its eventual political fate in the Senate:

"My first reaction to the Kerry-Lieberman bill is that it's the same old cap-and-trade scheme that the Senate has defeated three times since 2003," Senator Inhofe said. "In fact, it has a strong resemblance to the disastrous Waxman-Markey bill. Only now, along with paying skyrocketing electricity prices, consumers will pay a gas tax.

"The Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade proposal is just like Waxman-Markey in another key respect: it will destroy millions of good-paying jobs, many of which will be lost in regions, such as the Midwest, South, and Great Plains, which depend on coal for electricity. Given these facts, it's no wonder that this massive energy tax is opposed by Republicans and Democrats alike, and that is has virtually no chance of passing the Senate."

"The sooner we reject global warming cap-and-trade legislation, and get to work on an all-of the-above energy policy, the sooner the American public will have access to affordable, abundant, American-made energy." ###

U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works :: Minority Page Posted by Matt Dempsey Matt_Dempsey@epw.senate.gov

Contact:

Matt_Dempsey@epw.senate.gov (202) 224-9797
David_Lungren@epw.senate.gov (202) 224-5642

VIDEO CREDIT: JimInhofePressOfficea