It\’s Getting Hot In Here

Cross-posted on the CCAN Blog.

Last night 1Sky and the Energy Action Coalition hosted a conference call with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairs Henry Waxman and Ed Markey to discuss the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Let me begin by thanking Gillian Caldwell at 1Sky for moderating, and the congressman and their staff for attending the call. The hour long conference call, attended by more than 600 listeners, answered about 15 specific policy questions about the bill.  Annette Welch from WV asked about the provisions for coal and CCS in the bill, and what the legislation would do about the practice of mountain top removal coal mining and and pollutants from coal burning power plants…the answer from the chairmen was less than disappointing.

When asked about coal, Waxman stated that this bill is tough on coal—it requires coal companies stay within national carbon cap, when it comes to emissions of CO2. Markey replied that incentives for developing CCS are important “because coal is so plentiful in the United States.”  Waxman also noted that coal but can be part of energy future in the US—it is one of three pillars is reducing foreign sources of energy…then, prepare yourselves….Markey finished the question off by adding that even if we stop using coal other countries won’t stop—we, the U.S., need to find way to be a leader in CCS, then export the technology to Russia, china, India, etc. They did not respond to the question of mountain top removal.

A bill that ignores the root causes of an enormous carbon emitter, allows billions of dollars to be funneled to the dirty industries accelerating global climate change, and then is touted as being “tough” on the issue is not one that I can support. It may be necessary to compromise in order to get votes to pass a bill-  but if we take this bill as-is, global climate change will continue to accelerate. Americans will pay for higher energy costs without benefiting from lower carbon emissions. There will be a market for carbon that the coal companies will benefit from, while coalfield communities will continue to suffer.

There is nothing “tough” on coal in this bill. There is nothing clean about coal. I am willing to work for good climate policy, but not help bad climate policy get passed quickly. It is not worth compromising our health and our environment in order to have “policy as soon as possible.”  Nope.