Finally an energy plan that makes sense

[begreen]

Maria Cantwell(D-Wa) and Susan Collins(R-Me) have introduced a clean energy bill that finally cuts through the lobbyist and partisan pork grabbing. Instead of cap and trade benefiting industry it is a cap and dividend benefiting us all. And in typical Cantwell style, it does this in a bill of 39 pages instead of thousands of pages of corporate loopholes. Give it a read and if you support this action, take time to let your reps know.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/sarah-van-gelder/cap-dividend-clearly-a-better-idea
http://cantwell.senate.gov/issues/CLEARAct.cfm

 

[jebatty]

The bill was announced in Dec 2009; now it's almost a year later and this is the first that I have heard about it. It hasn't been touted by Republicans, whom I expect it would not, because it nails the producer (read big lobbyist influence) and benefits the citizenry; and it hasn't been touted by the Democrats, whom I expect it would not because it nails the producer (read big lobbyist influence) and benefits the citizenry.

The only "virtue" of commons sense and simplicity is that there won't be enough money in it to feed the power hungry, greed interests; therefore, not likely to go anywhere but into the circular file.

 

[Highbeam]

You "cant well" do that.

 

[vvvv]

i get exited by susan's semi stutter [ sounds like shes thinking?] & met olympia 30 yrs ago as she walked the road & my truck broke down= fate. 2 pelican senators from maine tells a story !

 

[begreen]

You "cant well" do that.

Can't approach a problem with common goals and common sense? Well certainly not as long as the constituency, aka Sheep - US, waffle party, believe that.

 

[begreen]

??? Mind giving some specific concerns?

 

[glowarm]

Maria Cantwell(D-Wa) and Susan Collins(R-Me) have introduced a clean energy bill that finally cuts through the lobbyist and partisan pork grabbing. Instead of cap and trade benefiting industry it is a cap and dividend benefiting us all. And in typical Cantwell style, it does this in a bill of 39 pages instead of thousands of pages of corporate loopholes. Give it a read and if you support this action, take time to let your reps know.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/sarah-van-gelder/cap-dividend-clearly-a-better-idea

I agree this is much better than cap and trade, but it will not benefit us, other than as a feel-good measure. Any attempt to significantly lower emissions unilaterally, without China, Russia, India, Brazil, etc. helping out, is doomed to fail as a means of reducing CO2 levels by any significant degree. It is just a recipe for our continuing economic decline without any real benefit of lower global emissions. Domestic reductions are irrelevant if they do not alter global levels.

Is the US actually going to consume less, or just produce less here at home? Unless we really reduce consumption we will just continue offshoring production at our own economic peril, and perhaps to no net environmental benefit. (I do suppose making people poorer will eventually reduce consumption.)

Note the lengthy reader comment at the link you posted, which states in part:
"If we use either cap-and-trade or this fee-dividend, it not only destroys America's economy further, but both approaches will make things worse, not better. The reason is that it will send production to places like China, Brazil and India who have much higher CO2 emissions per KW (little to no pollution controls)."

I'm not saying we should pollute more, or pay workers less, or bring back sweatshops. But do we really want to give even more business to countries that already do those things? China is going to continue polluting rivers and exploiting workers, and if we want to export our CO2 emissions to them, they'll be happy to take that over for us as well. But they'll be sending all that CO2 right back over to us, for a fee.

 

[begreen]

True, the problems at hand need us to act globally, but first we need to clean up our own act. We can't legislate the world and we can't be considered leaders unless we set a good example. Right now our track record is abysmal. This is a good first step. No one is saying it has to be the final solution. Deferring action while waiting for others to take action is a sure way to sink a leaking ship.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

You "cant well" do that.

Can't approach a problem with common goals and common sense? Well certainly not as long as the constituency, aka Sheep - US, waffle party, believe that.

im thinnking taht was a play on the senator's name, i got a chuckle out of it but thats all. BG im definately gonna read it just dont have time right now to devote any thought to it , i'll comment when i can read and digest it

 

[precaud]

Is the US actually going to consume less, or just produce less here at home? Unless we really reduce consumption we will just continue offshoring production at our own economic peril, and perhaps to no net environmental benefit. (I do suppose making people poorer will eventually reduce consumption.)

This is my concern too. And we see it already in the US refiners, who have been operating at a loss for most of the last two years and many are being shut down and/or sold to foreign interests. Most affected region: the east coast. And this is happening with only a 5-7% pullback in demand. As the economy recovers, this is asking for problems. Does anyone really think that electric cars are going to significantly move the needle on gas/diesel consumption in the near future? I have the lowest carbon footprint of anyone I know that lives in this city, and I am not about to sell my truck (29mpg) or car (40mpg) to buy an electric.

If GM wanted us to take the Volt seriously, why don't they produce a million of them in the first year (instead of a paltry 30,000) and lower the price by a third. The reason is - the infrastructure is not there to support electrics yet. Is it going to magically appear over the next couple years? I doubt it.

 

[begreen]

The goal has to be decrease consumption and therefore emissions. There are many economic opportunities that will track with the changing demands. This is inevitable if we are to going to transition to a saner model than exhaust the earth's resources and kill off most species doing it. It won't happen overnight, but I like one that has a carrot along with the stick.

Precaud, getting a bit off topic here. Not a bad question, but it would be good to start an independent thread on the topic or post on the Volt thread in the ashcan.