U.S. Rep Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield) proved something in his speech at Portland City Club today: he ain’t Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
DeFazio, an 11-term veteran whom political insiders say is still mulling a 2010 run for the position Kulongoski will vacate after next year, eviscerated two of the Democratic governor’s top environmental policy iniatives.
The answer to global warming, as DeFazio spent most of his time explaining, is not the “cap and trade” approach pending in Congress or that Kulongoski made one of his top priorities this legislative session.
DeFazio says many carbon offsets are “phony” and likened the proposed market in which polluters and traders would exchange permits for emitting greenhouse gases to Wall Street’s credit derivatives debacle. He brought along hard copies of a report “Subprime Carbon” produced by the environmental group Friends of the Earth to buttress that point.
“There’s an unholy alliance of big business, some environmental groups and Wall Street,” that want cap and trade, DeFazio says, comparing the alliance to the same group that pushed energy deregulation a little more than 10 years ago. He attributed much of the development of both concepts to the same bogeyman: Enron, the bankrupt energy giant that formerly owned Portland General Electric.
“Wall Street is excited about another thinly regulated market,” he says.
DeFazio blasted pending cap-and-trade legislation, saying that since Western European nations adopted a similiar system, they’ve added $60 billion in costs but emissions have risen.
Instead of cap and trade, DeFazio favors using an approach that he says has been a big success: measuring emissions, placing caps on polluters and then fining them aggressively if they exceed limits. Such a system, DeFazio says, would mirror the 1972 Clean Water Act, which he termed one of the “biggest successes” in regulatory history.
Having thoroughly trashed a system favored not only by Kulongoski but that President Obama liked well enough to make a centerpiece of his first budget, DeFazio also took a passing swipe at the corn-based fuel that both the feds and the Oregon have larded with rich subsidies.
“Ethanol is a loser,” DeFazio says.
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Tags: cap and trade, Enron, global warming, Peter DeFazio, Wall Street
DeFonze is spot on! What can’t the rest of the state catch on to basic economics and science? I would love to see him bring algae based biofuel plants to Orygun. Too bad the Alcoa plants are shut down. We could be hydrogen central with the amounts of aluminum gallium that could have been produced.
Rep Peter DeFazio is right about “cap and trade” being bad. As a Democrat, however, he still wants to hurt the U.S. economy. He seems to believe the global warming scam.
No patriotic and informed American can support the ACES Act (cap and trade), based on the global warming scam.
Cap and Trade “would be the equivalent of an atomic bomb directed at the U.S. economy—all without any scientific justification,” said famed climatologist Dr. S. Fred Singer. It would significantly increase taxes and the cost of energy, forcing many companies to close, thus increasing unemployment, poverty and dependence.
Cap and trade represents huge taxes and cost increases, which will hurt mostly the poor and the middle class. Cap and trade will give dictatorial powers to Obama and will further enrich his billionaire friends (Gore, Soros, Goldman Sachs, Obama’s Chicago Climate Exchange friends, GE, the United Nations, etc.) — all at our expense and at the expense of our children and grandchildren.
Those brainwashed to the point of wanting to destroy the economy to “prevent global warming” are behaving like the most primitive human beings who were duped into believing that human sacrifices would ensure them good weather. Human beings don’t have the power to control climate! And killing the economy will not help the environment. Poor countries can’t protect the environment. Just look at Haiti!
More and more scientists and thinking people all over the world are realizing that man-made global warming is a hoax that threatens our future and the future of our children. More than 700 international scientists dissent over man-made global warming claims. They are now more than 13 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. http://www.climatechangefraud.com/content/view/3562/218/
Additionally, more than 30,000 American scientists have signed onto a petition that states, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.” http://www.petitionproject.org
We pray that honest leaders – both Democrat and Republican – are able to save us from Obama’s criminal ACES Act (cap-and-trade) scam.
AntonioSosa, if you can seriously believe that 7 billion people and hundreds of thousands of coal-burning factories around the world do not have an effect on the global environment, then I have a bridge to sell you. The hoax is believing that it’s a hoax.