Monday, October 5, 2009

A FEDERAL LEVIATHAN: THE AMERICAN CLEAN ENERGY AND SECURITY ACT OF 2009

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On June 26, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 2454, the 1,480 page American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), by the slim margin of seven votes.

The U.S. Senate plans to consider this bill as early as October.

Policymakers [and citizens] across the country need to review the full scope of this bill.

The cap and trade program, under Title III, will be considered first.

Initially known as the Waxman-Markey bill after authors Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), it is typically labeled as the "cap and trade" bill.

ACES, however, is so much more:

  • The cap and trade provisions comprise only 400 of the bill's almost 1,500 pages.
  • ACES, viewed in its entirety, contains a dizzying array of federal dictates and programs to transform and control U.S. energy production and use.
  • The bill imposes more than 1,000 new federal dictates through 21 federal agencies.
  • The senior attorney for the Sierra Club recently commented that ACES "is the most complex piece of legislation in the history of our country, which may make it the most complex piece of legislation in human history … it imposes on EPA alone approximately 600 [new] mandates."

The colossal price tag of this massive bill is also rarely noted:

  • The Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) estimated federal cost in direct spending at $822 billion, another nearly trillion dollar burden on American taxpayers.
  • Worse, the revenues to the federal treasury are from the indirect carbon tax imposed on energy users -- all economic sectors and consumers.

In short, ACES sanctions 85 percent of the U.S. energy supply from fossil fuels and pours money and mandates at renewable energy and energy efficiency. Nuclear energy is barely mentioned.

In so doing, the legislation wagers U.S. economic vigor on as yet untested, unproven, more expensive energy sources which have inherent limitations...

[Translation: national suicide.]

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