[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 9, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H6312-H6313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     WE NEED A NATIONAL ENERGY THAT DOESN'T PICK WINNERS AND LOSERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
West Virginia (Mrs. Capito) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CAPITO. Madam Speaker, I'm here today to talk about the same 
issue that my colleague from Florida just talked about, and that's 
energy. He alluded to the energy bill that's been moving through 
Congress over the last several months, but he neglected to say that in 
that bill are some real costs for real people. And I think these are 
the important issues in front of our Nation today.

[[Page H6313]]

  Energy, we found when the price of gasoline went up last summer over 
$4 a gallon, we were pressed, I think appropriately, to try to find an 
energy future, a plan for our energy future, and we never really 
answered that question. Well, this morning in Charleston, West 
Virginia, where I'm from, the price of gasoline went up to $2.75 and 
has been going up almost daily. So we need a national energy plan that 
doesn't pick winners and losers, that takes into account real costs for 
real people.
  Right now, the bill that's passed out of the Energy and Commerce 
Committee is a national energy tax on every single American. We call it 
cap-and-tax. The supporters call it cap-and-trade. But what it is, in 
reality, is it has serious problems for States such as mine in West 
Virginia. Ninety-eight percent of the energy generation in our State is 
generated through coal. Well, naturally, we're the second largest coal-
producing State in this Nation.
  We've powered America for generations by giving of our natural 
resources across this country, and I'm proud to say we have a proud 
heritage, not only of turning the lights on in America but also of the 
coal mining jobs and the coal mining communities and families 
throughout my State.
  But this will picks winners and losers because the heartland, of 
which I consider West Virginia--and we just heard the gentleman from 
Florida talk a lot about solar--but the heartland, which has had to 
rely on fossil fuels for energy generation and to keep our 
manufacturing jobs, we're going to be the losers here. We're going to 
be the ones who are going to pay the heavy price.
  What kind of price are we going to pay? Number one, job loss. It's 
estimated that in my State alone over 10,000 jobs will be lost in our 
manufacturing sector because of this bill. And you ask, why is that? 
Well, because our industrial input will be lower because of the high 
cost of meeting the demands, because of the lack of a transitional 
period in this bill. We'll also lose probably many, many, 10s of 
thousands of jobs in our coal mining industry and associated industries 
alone.
  Also, for the individuals, how is this going to impact the individual 
who is paying now the $2.75 in West Virginia? In some areas of the 
country, that probably sounds pretty good, but in ours, it's going up. 
We've had the luxury of lower energy prices, and we are pleased about 
that. But it's escaping us, and in this bill, we will no longer have 
that.
  If you look at the West Virginia electricity, prices under this bill 
will go up over 100. Think about that: 100 percent of your electricity 
bill, somewhere in the estimate of $2- to $3,000 a year.
  And who's the loser there? Small businesses are the loser. They're 
going to lose jobs because they're going to have the higher cost of 
turning on their electricity, running their business. And what's that 
going to result in? Job loss. That's going to result in lack of capital 
to invest in a small business. And then the higher cost of 
transportation would also hurt not only individuals but small 
businesses as well.
  But it's also going to hurt those people who can barely afford to 
keep the lights on as it is, and those are our lower income folks. By 
the year 2020, it is estimated that with this bill, with this cap-and-
tax bill, with this national energy tax, that the lower income folks 
across this Nation, that 25 percent of their income will go to paying 
for their energy costs.
  Now, let's think about this. We've just gone through a housing 
crisis, where people are losing their homes and people are having 
trouble, people are losing jobs. Now, we're going to say to you, a 
quarter of your income is going to go to one of the basic needs that 
you have, and that's the basic need for energy.
  Another loser are our State budgets. Think what an impact a national 
energy tax is going to have on every hospital, on every public school, 
on every university. Think of the cost of running the school buses that 
we've seen as the rise up in energy costs.
  So I don't think that this is the kind of bill that is going to solve 
the problem. It sets up winners and losers, and it has real costs to 
real people. It does have in there a great portion of carbon capture 
and sequestration where we will use coal, and we will use the 
technology and innovation, but we need to keep moving in this direction 
so we can be realistic about how we're going to meet our energy needs 
and how we're going to transition to the next best source.
  Green jobs and green future, that's what we all want. I think that 
it's a laudable goal, and it's one that we will reach, but we've got to 
do it where we're not picking winners and losers, where we realize that 
there are real costs to real people.

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