Texas Governor Rick Perry Leads Stiff Opposition to Climate Bill
Governor Rick Perry of Texas gives a wag of the finger to the pending climate change bill. (image: nytimes.com)
On Sept. 22 – the same day that President Obama and President Hu Jintao of China pledged to take action against climate change at a UN conference in New York – Gov. Rick Perry of Texas bashed the climate bill during a speech in Austin, calling it a “legislative monstrosity” that would “precipitate an economic disaster in the state of Texas.”
According to the New York Times’ Green Inc. blog, Perry’s harsh criticism of the bill opened up a day-long meeting involving the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the Texas Railroad Commission and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. They discussed how the climate bill might affect their state economy.
Texas is the biggest contributor of carbon emissions in the US, with 676 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel combustion in 2007, according to the Times. The state also leads the nation in oil and natural gas production, petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacturing, all of which are heavy emitters of carbon dioxide.
Not surprisingly, Perry focused his argument on the cap-and-trade element of the bill, which will essentially require industries to cap their emissions output or pay a fee to emit more than the allotted amount. Perry (and the rest of the opposition) likens this to an “energy tax” that will “cause every product that uses energy to become more expensive.” Opponents suggest that the energy industry will have no choice but to pass the “tax” onto consumers.
While anger about potential job losses was obvious, no one mentioned potential jobs created by new energy sectors that could emerge in the state. Texas is currently the largest producer of wind energy in the US. A proliferation of wind farms would create jobs.
Predictably, the severity of climate change was debated, with the speakers downplaying the relevance and consequences of global warming. In fact, one rally participant blatantly mocked scientists’ predictions about environmental destruction. Texas agriculture commissioner Todd Staple might have had the best quote of the conference: “Either they’re wrong or Texans are wrong, and we all know that Texans just aren’t wrong,” he said.
Both Perry and Staples are up for re-election this year.
The bill narrowly passed through the House of Representatives in June and faces and even tougher battle when it goes to the Senate.
Other strong opponents of the bill include James Inhofe, the Republican senator from Oklahoma who’s been “battling global warming alarmism since 2003,” when he became chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
The somewhat-infamous Inhofe – who has called global warming “the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people,” thinks a cap-and-trade program causes the American people to “pay significantly more for energy merely so some lawmakers in Washington can say they did something about global warming.”
Duke professor Bill Chameides does a nice job blogging about senators who are on the fence about the climate bill.
Some Democratic senators are skeptical of the bill, but only for specific reasons. In August, four senators from crucial swing vote states (Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, both of North Dakota) formally called on their leadership to drop the cap-and-trade section of the bill altogether.
According to Treehugger.com, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that this isn’t an option, and has vowed to bring climate legislation to a vote without splitting a carbon cap from renewable energy targets.
