Garden State Patriot

Last evening, Gov. Haley Barbour hosted an RGA webcast on C(r)ap & Trade. Gov. Barbour, of course, was an instrumental player in the GOP comeback in 1994 in his role as party chairman (personally, I don’t think we’ve had as effective a chairman since he left the post).

The purpose of last night’s webcast was to both provide an update on C(rap) & Trade, as well as to explain the consequences of capping CO2 emissions.

Gov. Barbour began the webcast by providing some perspective on the Democrats’ energy proposals. While the governor is greatly troubled by a potential government-run healthcare system, by contrast, that would only impact 18% of our economy while C(rap) & Trade would impact 100% of our economy. Energy, he said, ‘is the life’s blood of our economy.’ It effects everything we do and produce.

Currently in the U.S., the Governor noted, our energy comes from 3 main sources: Coal (50%), Natural Gas (20%), Nuclear power  (20%). The rest is derived from Hydro-electric (7%) and Solar/Wind/Bio-Mass (3%).

This is key to understand because one of the things Democrats are proposing, such as in the Waxman-Markey bill, is a ‘Renewable Energy Standard.’ This would regulate that a certain percentage of energy come from renewable sources which do not produce greenhouse gasses (solar/wind/bio-mass) which currently produce only about 3% of our energy. Importantly, nuclear power -which Gov. Barbour said is ‘the most proven way (to produce energy) without emitting greenhouse gasses’ – would NOT be counted toward the standard.

Moreover, hydro-electric power would not be a feasible alternative because the environmentalist wackos (my term) oppose the creation of dams and threats to the eco-system that they claim would affect things like salmon runs.

In a Waxman-Markey world, the only place to turn would be solar, wind and bio-mass. These sources would have to make up for the loss of production from carbon-emitting sources and nuclear. In Gov. Barbour’s state of Mississippi, he says this would be devastating and that without nuclear power his state would not be able to make up for the loss in energy production.

As an example, Gov. Barbour mentioned that the Tennessee Valley Authority now has 2 wind farms in place. But these wind farms are of little use in the South because wind is simply an unreliable source. The TVA farms, as a consequence are only operable 20% of the time.

Obviously, all of this will mean that energy costs will go up and jobs will be lost. Gov. Barbour mentioned that for every 1% increase in GDP, it would require a 3% increase in energy production. Logically, if energy production can not meet this demand, our economy will suffer. In fact, the Governor cited CBO numbers indicating that C(r)ap & Trade would cost the U.S. 2.5-3.0 million jobs PER YEAR. The average family would be burdened with roughly $1800 more in energy costs per year.

And there’s more.

Gov. Barbour said that C(r)ap & Trade would make industries like steel ‘uncompetitive.’ They would lose business to foreign steel makers in places like China.  And, ironically enough, this would actually lead to MORE pollution not less because American steel manufacturers emit 5x less per ton of steel produced than a steel producer in China. This would undermine the whole intent of C(r)ap & trade. And as we all know, so long as countries like China don’t get on board with C(r)ap & Trade, any efforts on our end to postitively impact the environment will be futile.  

In fact, Governor Barbour pointed to recent comments by none other than Lisa Jackson. At a recent hearing on energy, Jackson was asked how much less greenhouse gas emissions there would be if the U.S. does everything outlined in Waxman-markey and she said ‘NONE.’

Meanwhile, China is preparing to build 50 coal plants a year. And India has basically told us they have ‘no intention’ of going along with any of this.

It gets better.

Gov. Barbour pointed out that the Waxman-Markey bill actually has a provision in it to – get this – provide special unemployment benefits to people in the energy sector who lose their jobs as a result of this legislation. Quite frankly, I couldn’t believe that when I first heard it. Within the Waxman-Markey bill itself, they are admitting that their own proposal is a job killer!

In closing, the Governor asked: If you were going to come up with a plan to de-industrialize America, could you think of anything better? Well, the answer to this question is a clear and emphatic ‘NO!

Here is some more on C(r)ap & Trade today from The Heritage Foundation. 

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!‘