Space Stands Alone On Energy Bill
Only member of regional delegation to support measureBy JOSELYN KING
Article Photos
Fact Box
WHAT THE 'CAP AND TRADE' BILL WILL DO
- Reduce greenhouse gases by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 through a cap-and-trade program that allows pollution permits to be bought and sold.
- Limit emissions from major industrial sources, including power plants, factories, refineries and electricity and natural gas distributors. Emissions from agriculture would be excluded.
- Control carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels and limiting six other greenhouse gases.
- Allow companies to meet emission-limiting targets by investing in offset projects such as tree planting and forest protection.
- Require electric utilities to produce at least 12 percent of their power from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy by 2020, and require as much as 8 percent in energy efficiency savings.
- Impose tighter performance standards on new coal-fired power plants and providing $1 billion a year in development money for capturing carbon dioxide from such plants.
- Establish standards to require new buildings to be 30 percent more energy-efficient by 2012 and 50 percent more by 2016.
WHEELING - Only one local congressman supported "cap and trade" legislation - intended to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants - as it passed the U.S. House Friday.
U.S. Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio, was among those voting "yes," as were eight Republicans who broke with party lines.
Space had been uncommitted throughout the week on how he would vote on "cap and trade." Messages left with Space's office Friday night seeking comment on his vote were not returned.
But 44 other Democrats voted against the White House-backed legislation. Among them were Alan Mollohan and Nick Rahall, both D-W.Va., and Charles Wilson, D-Ohio. All had previously indicated their opposition to "cap and trade."
Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., joined with 168 Republicans in voting against the legislation, and she spoke out on the House floor during three hours of debate Friday.
"At a time when families are already struggling just to meet basic needs, the last thing we need is a new energy tax on all consumers," Capito said. "Yet that's what the majority's bill amounts to.
"It's a $646 billion national energy tax that will burden consumers, burden businesses and particularly burden our lower-income families. It picks regional winners and losers, with coal-dependent manufacturing states like West Virginia bearing the brunt of this bill."
She urged support for her own legislation, calling for an "all-of-the-above energy plan" in which royalties from offshore energy exploration would be used to fund investments in clean energy technologies.
"We all want cleaner sources of fuel and more efficient energy use, but this cap and trade bill is not the right way forward," Capito commented.
Wilson said members of the House "worked very hard to come up with the kind of energy reform bill that will both reduce greenhouse gases and lead our country to energy independence."
"Both are goals that I support," he continued. "Progress on the bill in the House was encouraging, but I felt it didn't go far enough to protect energy consumers and industries in my district. I believe that coal must and will play a major role in our nation's transition to energy independence."
Wilson noted that 86 percent of Ohio's electricity comes from coal.
"And the vast majority of that coal comes from Appalachian Ohio," he said. "Because we are located in an area of the country that heavily relies on coal to turn on the lights and heat our homes, Ohio families and her energy intensive industries - like steel - will bear the brunt of the cost from this version of climate change legislation."
The Congressional Budget Office has released estimates showing that the proposed "cap and trade" provisions of the climate bill would cost $22 billion a year by 2020.
It's assumed by the CBO that these costs would be passed on to consumers, with the projected price being $175 per household annually.
But the costs would be greater is such states as West Virginia and Ohio, where more than 98 percent of energy is produced from coal. Likewise, the cost would be less in California, where much less coal is used.
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EllisWyatt
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06-28-09 9:27 PM
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What jobs will be created? "Green" jobs? When you put workers in coal, coke, coal fired power plants, railroading, barge shipping and their support industries out of work, what can replace those jobs? These are good paying jobs with benefits. What will replace them? Are we to believe the Sultan, who said that, if the stimulus passed, unemployment would not rise above 8%? It is now close to 10%. Are we to believe Sultan Barry when he said that he would "create or save" 3 million jobs, a number that can't be quantified, with a $787 billion package? This "man" can't be trusted. He is in over his head and is being controlled by very powerful people behind the scenes. When you are unemployed, freezing and starving, what will you care about the atmosphere? Even after Osama wrecks US industry, China and India will continue to pollute, so what's the point?
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Graysongs
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06-28-09 4:51 PM
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reactionary - $50? I won't have anything to send my kids from the gulags! I just hope they send me to Guantanamo instead of the cold weather camps they'll probably create up in Deeeeetroit.
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Reactionary
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06-28-09 4:40 PM
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Grays. your kids and grandkids aint gonna see that 'saved' $50.00 anyway. Obie's gonna take it in taxes!
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Reactionary
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06-28-09 4:39 PM
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spelling----co N sequences
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Reactionary
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06-28-09 4:37 PM
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Truth, that was a GOOD ONE,,,,ouch! Not very original but not bad. good4u where did you study climatology, or earth science, or geology ? You come on as an Expert as to "Global Warming" and the social cosequences that will be had. I would just like to know where you get your information.
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TruthSeeker
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06-28-09 3:05 PM
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Nice one, good4u! As for you, Reactionary...I didn't star it out. The censors on this website did. Moron.
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Graysongs
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06-28-09 1:16 PM
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good4u - You need to keep up with the latest "political science", OK? "Global warming" is out - "Climate change" is in. Global warming had to be abandoned because those pesky thermometers were blowing the cover off it. I guess you missed the missed the meeting of the "Earth Whack-Jobs" where this was discussed. Try to do better.
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good4u
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06-28-09 12:52 PM
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Who cares if global warming destroys our planet in 50 years just as long as we saved a few dollars in the process thats all that counts!!!!! Your children and grandchildren will never see that few extra bucks you saved and won't be alive long enough to thank you for being so frugal with your money!
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BigMike
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06-28-09 10:20 AM
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'the benefit of cap and trade, being the cleaner air is one part of this. the innovation of new jobs and energy sources is the second. of course' From EIA data: CO2 Emissions 2000-2006 (latest data) in millions of metric tons: USA 5860,5902; China 3000,6000; India 1000,1300. China's CO2 emissions have doubled in 7 years! So how will this achieve 'cleaner' air? Global warming is a global problem and requires a global solution, if there is one.
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Graysongs
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06-28-09 10:08 AM
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Reactionary - You should understand that because this infanticide is "legal", having been so declared by 7 out of 9 lawyers in black robes, it may not be challenged or discussed. And the fact that the ruling was based on the ignorance of what could said to be "known" by the available technology of 1973 - literally the "dark ages" by comparison to today - is not to be questioned, either. And the fact that the child of a black mother is 3 times more likely to be killed than the child of a white woman? Well, it's "choice", you see.
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Reactionary
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06-28-09 9:43 AM
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Wonder, calm down a little and the typos will go away. But we all can still read the meaning.
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Reactionary
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06-28-09 9:40 AM
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Truth, ya really got me with that ******* thing. Wait til I empty out the spit cup in the outhouse!!! Then we can have grits & fatback!! Maybe take my cousin lucyjean to the picture show tonight!! How's that, moron! I didn't want to star that out.
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Reactionary
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06-28-09 9:35 AM
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Wonder, again you do not seem to understand. It is principles. You speak of "family values" in your post, but you have an undying loyalty to a party platform that condones killing off the unborn. I can not be part of something that I find abhorent. I can't reconcile "family values" and infanticide. Remember, you brought up "family values". So apparently there is enough of that crap to go around for everybody, right? BTW, I'm not a Democrat OR a Republican. I can't support something I don't believe in, But I do believe in traditional,conservative values.
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TheRealityPolice
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06-28-09 9:34 AM
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First we pay mortgages for those who cannot afford them - soon we will be paying for their electricity. I better look into a wind turbine and solar panels - for MY house!
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Graysongs
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06-28-09 9:18 AM
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There is still the possibility that the Senate will kill this thing. The whole scam is designed to reduce the US to third world nation status and provide more money from the serfs to feed the lords. They play on phonied up "science" and the idiotic "gaia" worship. And sycophant fools say "time will tell" and we "need to give it a chance". At this point, America's worst enemy is its government.
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wonderwhy
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06-28-09 8:41 AM
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Truthseeker- the benefit of cap and trade, being the cleaner air is one part of this. the innovation of new jobs and energy sources is the second. of course, this area, being ill informed and stubborn to think coal is the only way to go will be more apt to be angry about this bill. but we aren't the worst in health for kicks. it's the air we breath... no brainer. i know alot of folks that move from this area and talk about their sinus and breathing problems go away instantly. besides the long term effects. heck, look at parkersburg! those folks have trace minerals of cancer causing teflon in their systems. it's called pollution!!!!! and big business seem not to care. weird. anyways, time will tell on this bill. but they aren't going to replace coal without alternatives. there is most likely a chance i won't even see the full effect in my lifetime, but i sure hope it leave the country and area a cleaner place for my children.
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wonderwhy
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06-28-09 8:34 AM
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sorry for the typos. i need more coffee, adn as most realize that doesn't cure the typos. ha!
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wonderwhy
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06-28-09 8:33 AM
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reactionary- not quite sure why you spun out of control and turned this thread into an abortion issue. i will say though, that this happends regularly on this newspapers website. hope we can contain them to articles of that. i do agree the thread went off track witht ehe politics of who mess ed up what. BUT, all that boils down to how the american people did under each administration. everyone. nto just a few. the economy ,the budget the deficit the spending. history has thenumbers. everyone's sex lives, oh well.......i will point out theat the other artile on cap and trade has a pic of ensign, without his staffer that he had an affair. again, bottom line, hisotry will tell you how each president or administration did as far as the good of all americans. very telling at best..
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TruthSeeker
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06-28-09 6:08 AM
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BTW - For those that still think tax cuts are "the bomb" and that Reagan was a genius, take a look at Reagan's Prop 13 in California and how it ruined California's economy. Bush's tax cuts did not make Bush into the second coming of Reagan and Reagan wasn't much to deify. Cap and trade won't kill the economy but the particulates and poisons in our air and water surely will kill all humans eventually. Thinking with your wallet will get you dead probably sooner than you know. How many have already died of cancer from this environment? Let me know if you can't think of a single person you know.
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TruthSeeker
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06-28-09 5:49 AM
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Oh and for those uninformed the starred out word that is a nasty word on this site is r e d n e c k.
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TruthSeeker
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06-28-09 5:48 AM
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Reactionary: Surely you a living breathing ******* of a man! A grand example of that West Virginia hillbilly caricatured & laughed at by all. Thanks so much for your and Gray's participation in this debate over cap and trade. Let me know when you get a clue.
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Reactionary
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06-27-09 11:09 PM
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Bring that one back to me! I'll throw it in your face every time! Don't you talk of family values to me, when you are corrupt. Just like the family values of the party you support.
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Reactionary
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06-27-09 11:06 PM
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Yeah, I'll beat that one to death. Don't give me that "Holier than thou" crap about "FAMILY VALUES". In my opinion, anybody that condones killing babies as birth control--95% of infanticides annually--has NO ROOM to judge anybody on FAMILY VALUES
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Reactionary
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06-27-09 11:02 PM
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Wonder, he was asked the question to which he lied. He then answered truthfully AFTER the trial was over. He is nothing more than Arkansas trailer trash, that lacks self control. I know many people here in the Valley, from both major parties that excersize self control way better than your hero, the liar Clinton. THAT in itself is a 'family value'. Besides that , most republicans AND liberatarians do not celebrate 'Infanticide' as a Constitutional right. I've already looked up the numbers on this thing from both AIG AND the Centers for disease Control. So don't give my that 'health of the mother crap. That only accounts for 3% of the over 1.2 million--with an M--infanticides each year. Over 40 Million---with an M--since 1973.
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tmoore
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06-27-09 10:15 PM
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Only US companies will have this noose around their necks. Way to go Obie Hussein. Finall cancelled the weiner roasts on our 4th with the mullahs. What a guy.
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