Let’s Make a Deal: EPW Chair Acknowledges Principles Tossed Aside Early in Waxman Consideration

Let’s Make a Deal: EPW Chair Acknowledges Principles Tossed Aside Early in Waxman Consideration, All About the Money From Then After

“There’s so much revenue that comes in from a cap-and-trade system that you can really go to a person in a congressional district and get enough votes there by saying, ‘What do you need? What do you want? You can really help them.” U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., June 6, 2009

Washington, DC – Following the release of the June 6, 2009 cover story in National Journal Magazine detailing the ongoing cap-and-trade negotiations in the Senate, American Energy Alliance(AEA) president Thomas J. Pyle issued the following statement in response to Sen. Boxer’s claim that “revenue” from “a cap-and-trade system” was used to “get enough votes” to report Chairman Waxman’s plan out of committee:

“While American families and small businesses continue to confront one of the most difficult economic periods of our time, and nearly 10 percent of the American workforce remains out of a job, Sen. Boxer’s confirmation of Chairman Waxman’s strategy for getting his bill out of committee underscores the extent to which patronage, and not principle, has guided this entire process from the start.

“Suggesting that members of Congress were coaxed into voting for a job-killing energy tax in return for political carve-outs is a new low point, made all the more disappointing if it’s true. The American people deserve commonsense, supply-oriented solutions to the energy and economic challenges they face — not backroom deals, massive new taxes and one-size-fits-all mandates.”

The American Energy Alliance (AEA) is a not-for-profit organization that engages in public policy advocacy and debate surrounding the function, operation, and government regulation of global energy markets. AEA, an affiliate of the Institute for Energy Research, works to educate and mobilize citizens around the idea that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges.

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