From the by M.D. Fletcher |
August 2009 |
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Those of you carefully monitoring your antidepressant medications and still somehow maintaining an acceptable level of cognitive ability may have been following the recent debate in the U.S. House of Representatives regarding the infamous Carbon Cap and Trade Tax Bill. It's not called that, of course. Politicians always call those things something else, like "The Bright New Shining America Revenue Enhancement Environmental Beatification and Mother's Apple Pie Salvation Act." It's stall a tax. And it's a big tax. It will impact every business in the country, particularly the electric utility industry. Since electric power and energy is fundamental to our economy, it will also impact every single person in the country. This tax is so pervasive that even the most ardent of its supporters admit that it will have a financial impact on the United States. So, in the interest of continuing our goal of education our loyal cooperative membership as well as further elevating the collective heart rates of my devoted critics, I figure I'll try to break down this 1000-page bill into manageable pieces. Their primary arguments in support of its passage appear to include: It will free us from dependency on foreign oil. Well, gosh, I'm just as in favor of turning Dubai back into the insufferable sandbox it was always meant to be as the next guy, so that sure sounds good to me. I mean, I'd be able to discontinue my Farsi lessons and everything. But I'm not really sure how taxing electricity is going to do that. The biggest consumer of foreign oil in this country is the beloved 12-mpg beater parked out in your own driveway, plus a hundred million or so more just like it. Are we going to turn all of those into hybrids or - gasp- electric cars? If electricity costs two-bits or more a kWh, it's my guess probably not a lot of those are going to be flying off the old showroom floor. The fact is, oil doesn't generate electricity. Coal does. |
Last year, however, the United States Environmental Protection Agency declared coal to be just plain unacceptable as a naturally occurring earthen deposit inasmuch as the combustion of coal produces carbon dioxide which the EPA solidly asserted, is henceforth and forevermore, a pollutant. This presented a very convenient opportunity for a number of interests, including the current administration, the American Wind Power Association, the rest of the industrialized nations of the world and Al Gore, who has been kind of feeling down since his debunked documentary hit the remainder bin. The idea of the Carbon Cap and Trade Tax Bill is to reduce the carbon emissions of this country by 17% by the year 2020. I don't know where they came up with 17%, which is kind of an odd number. Maybe it was negotiated by respected and knowledgeable earth scientists. Maybe the number 17 has some mystical power. Maybe it's Al Gore's hat size. I just don't know. Anyway, that's the number and if industry can't make it, they pay the government to get around it. And I'll tell you right now that the electric utilities can't make it. Investor-owned utilities don't much care one way or another because their stockholders won't take the hit; their ratepayers will. Cooperatives, on the other hand, will be killed by it. Tri-State, our wholesale power supplier, has already cancelled coal-fired generation plans and is instead investing in much more expensive solar and wind generation which, by the way you'll pay for through the hated Fuel and Purchased Power Adjustment Clause on your light bill. By artificially raising the cost of generation another stated goal of the Carbon Cap and Trade Tax Bill is achieved. It will make alternative energy sources competitive with coal generation. Will it stop global warming? No, not as long as the rest of the world supplies Walmart. Will it create jobs? Sure it will, lots of them. Overseas. Does Congress care? They better. |
