[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 110 (Tuesday, July 21, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H8443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 GOOD ENERGY POLICY IS GOOD JOBS POLICY

  (Mrs. EMERSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mrs. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, in southern Missouri, rural families are 
struggling with job losses. We are a vibrant district with a time-
honored work ethic, but job losses have hit us especially hard during a 
time of unprecedented economic challenges.
  Constituents call my office every day, and they're asking what is 
Congress doing for them, how are we helping the manufacturing worker 
who doesn't want to go to the unemployment office because he really 
just wants to go back to work. And I hear a lot of justifiable anger 
from the same callers about Congress' policies that are going to make 
it tougher for them to get back to work. Cap-and-trade is the focus of 
their frustration and mine.
  Today, unemployment is still severe in southern Missouri with the 
potential to go much higher, much higher, if the cap-and-trade bill 
becomes law. More than 3,000 jobs could be lost in the Eighth District 
in a single year, and the few new green jobs this bill would create 
won't be in our communities.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill will leave with us a legacy of energy cost 
increases that will kill generations of jobs in rural America and in 
southern Missouri. Like my constituents, I am ready and willing to get 
to work if you will only give us the opportunity.
  Good energy policy is good jobs policy. I hope we can reverse course 
on cap-and-trade so it doesn't destroy our rural economy.

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