posted January 15, 2009
Sen. Bob Corker, a member of the Senate Energy Committee, disapproved of a proposal introduced Thursday by the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) calling it a “self-serving” approach to reducing carbon emissions. USCAP is an alliance of businesses and environmental groups calling for major reductions in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Sen. Corker said, “While I deeply respect the companies who put this proposal together, after listening to USCAP’s briefing this morning I am very disappointed in their self-serving approach to reducing carbon emissions. It appears their blueprint promotes many of the same problematic provisions that have plagued cap-and-trade bills in the past.
"If the United States truly wants to be a world leader we need real, market-based solutions not self-serving, window dressing attempts to get federal expenditures with no real steps forward in environmental reform and sacrifice.
“I’m totally bewildered that in this anti-earmark atmosphere, USCAP would promote what is basically just another request from special interest groups to take money out of taxpayer pockets. The notion that this bill will give significant allowances—with real monetary value—away for free is outrageous.
“I am also opposed to the inclusion of international and domestic offsets, which will compromise the strength of the market system and call into question the integrity of emission reductions.
“I could support a simple, transparent cap-and-trade system that focuses on auctioning emission allowances, returns all the revenue generated from those auctions to the American people, and doesn’t allow loopholes such as offsets to weaken the market system.
“I also support exploring the concept of a carbon tax that returns all generated revenue to the American people as a more efficient and transparent way to address carbon emissions.”
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