Senators, Experts Debate Pros & Cons Of Energy Bill

By Courtney Costello-Talk Radio News Service

Republicans and Democrats shared mixed opinions on how the U.S. should go about creating a competitive clean energy economy on Thursday. The debate, which took place at a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing, also featured a panel of energy and economy experts.

Committee Chairwomen Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) defended the Waxman-Markey bill, saying that it will create jobs and help sustain the environment and the economy. Republicans chose to focus on the negative impact the Waxman-Markey bill will have on the working class.

“Waxman-Markey is a tax increase on the American people, that’s the whole point of cap-and-trade, which is to make energy more expensive so we use it less,” said Ranking Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.).

“Without a cap on carbon emissions and a price on carbon we are not going to get serious innovations at scale in our domestic markets, we are not going to create local demand, and we are not going to have great American success stories,” said John Doerr, Partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers.

Harry Alford, President and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, accused Sen. Boxer of “racial” remarks during the hearing, and said, “unfortunately the current legislation from the House of Representatives will negatively impact the most vulnerable, it doesn’t do what it is supposed to do.”

“At the end of the day, our competitiveness in the world economy will depend on how we face the challenge of global warming,” said Sen. Boxer (D-Calif.)