Dennis Kucinich votes against climate change bill

Posted by Philip Dru on 6/27/09 • Categorized as Global Warming, Rebel Alliance

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who is widely known as an advocate for the environment and for clean energy, announced on Friday that he had voted against the climate change legislation passed earlier that day by the House of Representatives.

“I oppose H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,” Kucinich stated in a press release. “The reason is simple. It won’t address the problem. In fact, it might make the problem worse.”

“It sets targets that are too weak, especially in the short term, and sets about meeting those targets through Enron-style accounting methods,” he continued. “It gives new life to one of the primary sources of the problem that should be on its way out — coal — by giving it record subsidies.”

Kucinich was especially scathing in his criticism of the bill’s extensive compromises with the coal industry — compromises that were largely negotiated by Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA), who hails from a coal-mining district in Virginia and has been the recipient of generous coal company donations.

Last month, Boucher announced on his website, “I am pleased to report that following six weeks of continuous and intensive negotiations with Chairman Waxman and Chairman Markey, I have now reached an agreement with them on the principles for greenhouse gas control legislation. … I have been working with Chairmen Waxman and Markey to advance the goals which I think are important to achieve in control legislation. These goals are the preservation of coal related jobs, the facilitation of growing coal production, and keeping electricity rates affordable in regions like Southwest Virginia where most of the electricity is coal fired.”

In addition to his complaints about the favoritism shown to the coal industry, Kuchinich objected that the legislation is fatally flawed because of its built-in delay before any real change is mandated. “The bill locks us into a framework that will fail,” he explained. “Science tells us that immediately is not soon enough to begin repairing the planet. Waiting another decade or more will virtually guarantee catastrophic levels of warming.”

With Republicans bitterly opposed to even the modest and industry-favoring provisions of the legislation, and the Senate seemingly in no hurry to take action of its own, Kucinich’s desire to see the bill fail may be fulfilled.

“I respectfully submit that not only can we do better; we have no choice but to do better,” Kucinich insists. “Indeed, if we pass a bill that only creates the illusion of addressing the problem, we walk away with only an illusion. The price for that illusion is the opportunity to take substantive action.”

Raw Story

| Muriel Kane | Friday, June 26, 2009

 

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