Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Does This Shock Anyone?   [Greg Pollowitz]

Washington Times:

Climate bill aids authors' states

An excerpt:

A little noticed Environmental Protection Agency analysis shows that the pending climate-change bill in Congress would particularly benefit the states represented by its primary authors.

The analysis, obtained by The Washington Times, shows that the states that would benefit most from the climate legislation that passed the House in June include California and Massachusetts. The bill was co-authored by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, California Democrat, and Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Waxman, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the EPA's analysis is preliminary and "has significant limitations" that fail to account for emissions from plants outside California that provide electricity to the state.

An aide to Mr. Markey said the bill was written to ensure "regulatory certainty," and was based on the input of electric utility sector "to best serve the entire industry across regional lines."

Critics see the analysis as another reason to go slow on legislation that would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by establishing a new system of trading emission allowances called cap-and-trade.

The EPA analysis was included in the agency's response to inquiries by Sen. Russ Feingold, Wisconsin Democrat, about the House bill.

"I have heard concerns from my constituents about how the climate-change bill could unfairly impact Wisconsin," Mr. Feingold said in a statement. "The data from the EPA was requested as part of my effort to learn as much as possible about the bill and ways to improve it."

10/20 06:30 AMShare