There's a rising tide from both sides of the aisle to kill Waxman Markey HR 2454. The original intention of moving to clean power is paid lip service in this bill but that's about it
Read the Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service Summary here. You can also read the full bill, but due to size it's best D/L'd as a pdf.
The more I read of the 1,428 page bill (I skimmed it, and have read the 300+ page amendment printed and inserted the day of the house vote), the more I am disappointed.
Right up front on page 11 is the first clue that this bill is full of wierdness:
SEC. 3. INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION.
10 The Administrator, in consultation with the Depart
11 ment of State and the United States Trade Representa
12 tive, shall annually prepare and certify a report to the
13 Congress regarding whether China and India have adopted
14 greenhouse gas emissions standards at least as strict as
15 those standards required under this Act. If the Adminis
•HR 2454 EH
1 trator determines that China and India have not adopted
2 greenhouse gas emissions standards at least as stringent
3 as those set forth in this Act, the Administrator shall no
4 tify each Member of Congress of his determination, and
5 shall release his determination to the media.
India and China? That's warming up the crowd with some humor right? "Dear Congress, China and India aren't paying any attention to what we want." Print it and just make copies as needed in the future.
It provides for more coal plants that use the dirtier eastern coal. As reported and diaried all over everywhere the EPA, at the direction of the WH, is approving at least 24 new MTM, itself an ecological disaster for the Appalachians. Got to green light blasting open mountain tops to have the dirtiest coal to clean up the air? That part is an unprecedented huge piece of pork for the eastern coal/power industry
Up front, I am not a supporter of expanding civilian NP. This bill green lights nuclear power plants with no added regulations to stiffen monitoring radioactive pollution in the tailings left to blow in the wind at the mining site, nor word one on safely storing the radioactive waste produced. It doesn't require, doesn't even ask the nuclear power industry to use new safer designs, just full speed ahead. This part of the bill effectively shoves aside proven science and protesters concerns that the NP industry cannot contain, treat or safely store it's own waste byproducts.
Will every NP plant will be getting carbon credits for killing us with radioactive waste instead of burned coal byproducts, credits they can then sell to themselves to offset the dirty coal plants the same power companies will build? That's the impression, but there's so many conditioning statements leading into actual bill components, the language gets so dense at points it's hard to tell what the bill is actually saying.
Here's an example early on in the bill:
‘‘(4) CREDIT MULTIPLIER FOR DISTRIBUTED
6 RENEWABLE GENERATION.—
7 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in
8 subparagraph (B), the Commission shall issue 3
9 Federal renewable electricity credits for each
10 megawatt hour of renewable electricity gen
11 erated by a distributed renewable generation fa
12 cility.
13 ‘‘(B) ADJUSTMENT.—Except as provided
14 in subparagraph (C), not later than January 1,
15 2014, and not less frequently than every 4
16 years thereafter, the Commission shall review
17 the effect of this paragraph and shall, as nec
18 essary, reduce the number of Federal renewable
19 electricity credits per megawatt hour issued
20 under this paragraph for any given energy
21 source or technology, but not below 1, to ensure
22 that such number is no higher than the Com
23 mission determines is necessary to make dis
24 tributed renewable generation facilities using
25 such source or technology cost competitive with
1 other sources of renewable electricity genera
2 tion.
3 ‘‘(C) FACILITIES PLACED IN SERVICE
4 AFTER ENACTMENT.—For any distributed re
5 newable generation facility placed in service
6 after the date of enactment of this section, sub
7 paragraph (B) shall not apply for the first 10
8 years after the date on which the facility is
9 placed in service. For each year during such 10-
10 year period, the Commission shall issue to the
11 facility the same number of Federal renewable
12 electricity credits per megawatt hour as are
13 issued to that facility in the year in which such
14 facility is placed in service. After such 10-year
15 period, the Commission shall issue Federal re
16 newable electricity credits to the facility in ac
17 cordance with the current multiplier as deter
18 mined pursuant to subparagraph (B).
Note that it issues credits for megawatt/hr generation, 4 megawatts in specifics, far more than a small entrepreneur can ramp up to with the current small business loan clamp down. It effectively freezes out smaller distributed power generation and keeps existing power companies in full control of future power generation. That's a benefit of the power companies writing the bill. And that's reasonably clear. There are parts I've read three or four times wondering what it actually says.
The bill will seek to establish, at some unspecified future date, deforestation standards, and then from that point issue guidelines to reach a zero deforestation point or a deforestation rate that is okay for that area. It appears to allow foreign developing countries to sell energy credits, for not cutting down forests, to US energy producers. See page 820 and thereabouts.
That cash for clunkers? Thank you middle class for buying fuel efficient cars all these years. All you Toyota Camry/Corolla, Honda Accord/Civic owners in the middle class that made these the best sellers for years, you get nothing for being responsible vehicle owners. Your neighbor with the gas guzzling SUV, and his kid with the beater gas guzzler '92 Impala get the help.
Thank god there's the Native Hawaiian Housing Loan Guarantees (p615). They ewer in danger of being left out of this porkfest. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to know they are eligible for loans based on energy and location efficiency. The only for sure thing about that is that additional staff will be required to write the required reports documenting the meetings and efforts to administer that program-every program proposed for that matter. More waste.
The bill also ties us into international participation in Cap and Trade.
You can go pretty much anywhere in the bill and find head scratchers to anger fuel. Is that what everyone had in mind when we were sold a "clean energy bill"?
WM creates new taxes, and new bureaucracy, but it will not have much change effect on the power industry, the upper class that can afford it, and the poorest who can't pay their power bills already. That will all be passed on to and paid by the the middle class as increased utility bills and cost of goods.
To boot, with new Administrators, Advisory Boards, as well as the need to add to Energy, Education, Agriculture, and the EPA to actually write the rules, regulations, and requirements this bill asks for but does not provide itself.
Unless the senate comes to it's senses and rejects this, pollution levels are just as likely to increase as decrease, taxes on energy will go up, and consumer power bills will go through the roof.
There's a need for a good clean clean energy bill that will move us forward, but HR2454 does not accomplish that goal.