Comments on: Senator Claire McCaskill tweets to weaken ACES (updated)

By: Scholars and Rogues » The Weekly Carboholic watches “The Day After Tomorrow”

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:06:33 +0000

[...] the only thing I really thought was totally and completely accurate about the movie was how stupid politicians are (the movie’s Vice President is a blatent Cheney dig, and it came out in [...]

By: Brian Angliss

Brian Angliss — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:44:26 +0000

Willie, I have a larger home in an area that needs significant amounts of heating in the winter and electricity for cooling in the summer, and the bulk of my electricity is produced by coal. I work in an industry that is an energy hog and could be seriously affected by this legislation to the point that supporting it could actually cost me my job down the road. I have some access to public transportation, but not good access. I have two young children who need to be transported all over the place. Suggesting that I don’t care isn’t going to get you very far with me.

I’ll be the first to admit that ACES isn’t great, and I’m not sure if it’s better or worse than nothing – I’ve blogged about this very thing here previously. But the solution is to strengthen it so it has teeth, not weaken it further.

And as for jobs and energy costs, I recommend you read the cost analyses from the CBO and EPA – both estimate that the costs are minimal (< $15 per month per household, IIRC), and both neglect to include the benefits from reduced GHG emissions. Finally, off the top of my head I can think of at least three studies out in the last year that have showed that transitioning to a green economy will actually create jobs.

By: Willie Paul

Willie Paul — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:33:43 +0000

… A cynical person might think you view this as a weaking of the bill because you don’t care about high energy costs or shipping or jobs overseas. Perhaps Claire opposes this because she cares about her constituents being harmed for no measureable benefit to the climate.