BOND: AMERICA DESERVES BETTER

WASHINGTON, D.C. - After Senate Democrats kept details of the Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade proposal secret up until the last minute, U.S. Senator Kit Bond today outlined issues with the bill during a Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) hearing.

"Unfortunately, we have the latest example of cap-and-trade sponsors keeping details of their proposal secret until the last minute, in this case releasing bill language at 11 o'clock Friday night," said Bond. "America deserves better. America's families, farmers and workers deserve to know how Kerry-Boxer will impose trillions of dollars in higher energy taxes, kill millions of jobs and treat unfairly entire regions of the country such as the Midwest, South, South and Great Plains."

During the hearing, Bond denounced the vague and abbreviated EPA analysis accompanying the Kerry-Boxer bill. He pointed out that traditional analysis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of massive legislation like the Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade bill is far more extensive and in-depth. Previous analyses on climate bills included information detailing the U.S. regions affected, potential threat to American workers and types of consumers most affected. He noted career EPA experts traditionally take six weeks to conduct a thorough analysis of climate bills. He also noted that EPA's Bingaman-Specter analysis was 252 pages in length, Lieberman-Warner was 193 pages and Waxman-Markey was 160 pages, but the Kerry-Boxer was only 38 pages.

Bond revealed that there are several issues with the current Senate EPW hearing and the Kerry-Boxer bill. In a presentation before his Senate colleagues, he listed the following issues:

* They took away USDA's offset role negotiated in the House.

* They removed the 5-year pause in EPA's indirect land use rule.

* Their bill still proposes uncertain potential for agriculture offsets

* They propose higher production costs for famers.

* Their bill will result in agriculture lands taken out of production.

An example of how EPA failed to analyze fully the bill, Bond stressed that there is a lack of information in the analysis on how Kerry-Boxer will do less to protect electricity consumers from higher power bills. The Kerry-Boxer bill has a more stringent 20 percent target in 2020, instead of the 17 percent target in Waxman-Markey. Bond explained that a stricter cap means Kerry-Boxer distributes fewer program allowances to those who will have to pay the bills. Bond calculated that electricity consumers will receive nearly 16 billion dollars less from Kerry-Boxer in protection against higher energy prices. Bond emphasized that another problem with Kerry-Boxer includes the plight of farmers, which is a major issue in the Midwest and South. He noted that cap-and-trade threatens farmers and livestock producers with higher production costs from fuel to run machinery, to fertilizer, drying costs, and shipping goods to market.

In closing, Bond said, "We can make North America energy self-sufficient in 15 years, if the Administration and Congress will act. By developing our existing fuel sources in an environmentally-friendly way, adding 100 new nuclear power plants, using electric-powered vehicles, and conserving more energy, we can add jobs, produce more tax revenue and avoid expensive taxpayer subsidies."

An audio and video clip of this EPW hearing statement is posted on the Senator's website.

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