Top 10 Questions for Senate EPW Members

WASHINGTON– As theSenate Committee on Environment and Public Works continues to discusscap-and-trade, the American Energy Alliance (AEA) released its top 10 questionsfor the committee’s members.

10) Do you think Americans are not paying enough for gasoline,electricity, food, clothing, and just about everything else?

9)  Was President Obama just kidding when he said, “Under my planof a cap-and-trade system, electricity prices would necessarilyskyrocket”? What about the President’sstatement about cap-and-trade bankrupting coal companies – companies that provide nearly 50 percent of ournation’s electricity? 

8) Contrary to recent CBO estimatesthat rely on a theoretically unsupported assumption about the economic impactof free allowances on U.S. households, a recent study found that the lowest-earning 80 percent of families would bear the entirenet burden of the cost of cap-and-trade legislation, whilerent-seeking corporations and the wealthiest 20 percent would profit. Which of the rent-seeking corporations you have metwith would benefit the most from a cap-and-trade system that punishes the poor?

7) There’s been lots of talk recentlyabout EPA’s economic analysis of cap-and-trade’s impact on American families.Assuming you’ve read the latest report, can you confirm for the record that theagency’s cost estimates are founded on the assumption that 100 or more newnuclear power facilities will be opened and in operation by 2030? Can youconfirm further that we haven’t opened a single new nuclear power facility in30 years?

6) Can you explain exactly how theinclusion of “Worker Adjustment Assistance” is not a clearadmission that the bill would put Americans out of work?   Do youbelieve that destroying Americans’ jobs are putting them on green welfare is aneffective, responsible method of putting “millions of people back to work?”

5) Speaking of green welfare, have you seen the recent studyfrom Germany which found that the German government’s supportof green energy between 2000 and 2010 is expected to exceed $100 billion? A similar expenditure in the U.S. wouldamount to half a trillion dollars.  Would that beenough?  How much government support for green energy and temporary greenjobs is enough?

4) Speaking of temporary ‘green jobs’ created by government fiat, haveyou had a chance to read the study from Spaindetailing how that nation’s “green jobs” program destroyed 2.2 private sectorjobs for every green job it created?  It also found that 9 out of 10 greenjobs created no longer exist.  Does this sound like a model the U.S.should follow?

3) Can you explain why it makes good economic and practical sense toincrease the price of 84percent of the energy we use whileforcing American taxpayers to use more of the mostexpensive and least reliable sources at ourdisposal and handing out billions more of their tax dollars togovernment-dependent wind and solar companies in hopes that wind and solarmight , possibly, someday soon, be capable of providing a full one percent ofthe energy that fuels America’s economy?

2) Did you know that joblessness is Oregon hasmore thandoubled in the years since the State’s governor signed intolaw a massive increase in taxpayer subsidies for ‘green energy’, a program thatis expected to costOregon taxpayers $478 million by 2013? Is this the kind of ‘green energy economy’ envisioned by thislegislation?

1) Unemployment in the U.S.approaching 10 percent.  How much higher do you think it should go? If you could choose, which overseas nation would you send Americans’ jobs to?