UPDATE 2:33pm: Opening statements have resumed for "Panel 2: Ensuring U.S. Competitiveness and International Participation."
It's Thursday and here at the National Wildlife Federation, we have a team of staffers watching this week's House Energy & Commerce Committee hearings on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, draft clean energy & climate legislation introduced by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA).
You can read our blow-by-blow notes on Thursday's hearing after the jump. Note that if it's not in quotation marks, it's my hasty summary of remarks (and some of my own commentary), not a direct quote.
You can watch the hearings for yourself on the committee's website. Please join the discussion in comments!
2:37pm: Opening statement from Pastor Doug Smith of the Virginia Interfaith Society for Public Policy. Pastor Smith warns a billion people could face famine and water shortage due to global warming and says we have a moral obligation to act now. Pssh, whatevs, hasn't this guy heard climate action might mean gas prices could go up a few cents???
2:30pm: Opening statement from Lee Lane of the American Enterprise Institute, a leading global warming denial group. Short version: Global warming is a serious problem but doing what scientists say is necessary to stop it will surely destroy America.
2:28pm: Hearing has resumed.
12:59pm: And we're back into recess.
12:46pm: "Panel 2: Ensuring U.S. Competitiveness and International Participation" is underway, you can see the full witness list and read their opening statements here.
12:16pm: Committee thanks the first panel and goes into recess.
12:13pm: Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) complains that revenue allocations in the bill isn't detailed. Of course, if the allocations were detailed, Rep. Scalise would be ripping any government spending as pork and consumer rebates as a waste of taxpayer money. Again, you have to wonder why some members are complaining about details of the bill when they have no apparent interest in passing clean energy legislation in any form.
12:05pm: Dr. Robert Michaels of California State University says when it comes to price, the real question is what do you get for it? Michaels says carbon pricing won't buy compliance from China & India. Funny, that's not where I thought he was going -- I was wondering what we're getting for all the money we're spending on coal and oil right now.
11:59am: Last 20 minutes or so have been a detailed discussion of things like a smart grid, energy efficiency, renewable energy production tax credits, etc. Nothing really remarkable. In the meantime, I'll give a shout out to the Sierra Club's live blog of the hearings.
11:38am: Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA) points out that when Congress was considering a cap-and-trade system to stop acid rain, we heard plenty of warnings that the system would bankrupt industry, destroy thousands of jobs, and ruin the economy. Instead, the system solved acid rain at a much lower cost than expected. McNerney says these warnings that carbon cap-and-trade will destroy America sound awfully familiar.
Rep. McNerney is a climate rock star.
11:32am: Here's my biggest problem with this hearing -- hardcore global warming deniers like Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) have absolutely no intention of voting for clean energy legislation in any form. But we have to listen to people like Rep. John Shimkus whine that he needs more time to read the bill, wants another week to sit and think about it, this is all moving too fast, stop this crazy clean energy train, I want to get off!
James Hansen first testified to Congress about the threats of global warming in 1988. How much longer do people like Rep. Shimkus need?
11:24am: Coal-fired power is free, our current electrical grid is free, and Saudi Arabia gives away gasoline. OK, so that's just the impression that I get whenever a committee Republican sternly warns that transitioning to a clean energy future may require us to spend money.
11:20am: Rep. Walden says that if the wind isn't blowing, wind turbines don't generate power. He had a chart printed up to back him up on this point. No, really.
11:17am: Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) warns he may throw a procedural fit if he doesn't get as much time as he wants to ask questions.
11:10am: Rep. Barton says something like, I learned about geology yesterday, I hope to learn something new today. It was a reference to yesterday's brain-hurting exchange with Energy Secretary Stephen Chu, in which Chu tried to explain to Barton how plate tectonics work.
11:05am: Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) says Americans will never buy hybrids or electric cars unless they're forced to by the government. Can someone tell Rep. Barton that Americans already buy a quarter of a million hybrids every year? It's exactly this kind of thinking that has helped put GM and Chrysler in the position that they're in.
11:02am: Jeff Sherba basically just said, If I shut down a coal plant because it's no longer economical to operate under a carbon cap, I shouldn't continue to get free carbon allowances that I could then sell for a windfall profit. I think he thinks he was being magnanimous by saying that.
10:55am: Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) asking if businesses should be eligible for rebates from cap-and-trade revenue as well as consumers.
10:50am: Richard Morgan, testifying on behalf of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, says giving away polluting permits could mean windfall profits for utilities.
10:06am: Allow me to summarize about 30 minutes worth of opening statements: Polluters want us to keep paying our power bills no matter how high the cost of fossil fuels go and stop all this clean energy nonsense. If we DO insist on transitioning to clean energy, we need to do all we can to guarantee polluter profits ... uh, wait, I mean, guarantee consumers aren't adversed.
You can read the written opening statements here (scroll down to bottom).
9:49am: In Virginia, my power bill has gone up 20% in the last year due to the rising cost of coal and the cost of building expensive new coal-fired power plants. In that context, it's comical to listen to Jeff Sterba, representing the Edison Electric Institute, express his grave concern that climate legislation may cause power bills to go up. (The Edison Electric Institute used to fund a prominent global warming denier group.)
You see, if power bills are going up due to the rising cost of coal, that's the cost of doing business and we can't do anything about it -- if the cost of coal-fired power is going up because we're trying to transition off dirty fuels and hold polluters accountable, it will surely destroy America as we know it.
Sterba closes by saying we have to make sure consumers are not "adversed."
9:48am: From a source in the hearing room: "Who knows if it'll be anything but Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) just put a white hardhat on his desk, whereas there are a lot of PowerShift people in audience w/green hardhats."
9:42am: Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) opens Thursday's hearing. You can see the full witness schedule here.
