[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 159 (Thursday, October 29, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10880-S10881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CAP-AND-TRADE

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today to raise serious concerns 
with the cap-and-trade legislation which is currently in hearings in 
the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  The committee is holding its third hearing today on the bill that 
would presumably be coming to the floor of the Senate. One of the 
panels today is going to focus on the impact on transportation of the 
cap-and-trade bill. I think Members deserve to know the real costs and 
effects this bill will have on transportation. That is what I will talk 
about today.
  Last week, Senator Bond and I unveiled a report that analyzed the 
fuel cost implications from the House bill that is making its way 
through the House. Our report forecasted a $3.6 trillion gas tax on the 
American economy for the life of the program, which is 2015 through 
2050.
  At this time of economic uncertainty, with 15 million people out of 
work, just about every American is cutting back on spending. Do we 
really want to put a tax on energy and increase energy costs for 
families and small businesses at a time like this? I think the answer 
is obvious. The worst thing we could do to our struggling economy is to 
overburden it with new taxes and more regulations. But that is exactly 
what the cap-and-trade bill is doing, and that is exactly what is going 
through Congress right now.
  This past weekend, we began to see what was in the Senate bill that 
is being proposed. It is even more stringent than the House bill. The 
legislation on the Senate side would impose a huge tax on business and 
levy a massive economic burden on all Americans.
  For most Americans, gasoline is a mandatory expense, and raising the 
cost of it, of course, is going to strain working families, small 
businesses, farmers, ranchers, and our whole economy. Last year, when 
consumers experienced $4 gasoline and $5 diesel, it caused enormous 
hardships for Americans. Fortunately, those fuel prices were temporary. 
But under cap and trade, those high prices will be permanent--at least 
until 2050.
  High fuel prices don't just impact our transportation expenses; we 
are actually hit twice because the gas tax raises the price of every 
good and service--groceries, clothes--that consumers must purchase in 
order to live.
  Energy costs are, among our businesses, top operational expenses. 
Companies face a variety of energy expenses, ranging from heating and 
cooling their plants and facilities to powering equipment and lighting. 
In order for businesses to withstand this heavier tax burden and to 
remain viable, they will be forced to pass fuel costs on to consumers 
through higher prices.
  Several industries will be more severely penalized by the gas tax 
than others.
  Let's take trucking. The American trucking industry is a major target 
of the cap-and-trade gas tax. In 2007, 1.7 million drivers of tractor 
trailers logged 145 billion vehicle miles, consuming 28.5 billion 
gallons of fuel. That equates to an annual fuel cost per vehicle of 
$34,560. That number will skyrocket under this cap-and-trade proposal 
that is going through Congress. When you consider that the average 
self-employed truckdriver earns only $43,000 per year in net revenue, 
the gas tax represents an enormous new tax on working middle-class 
truckers.
  Of course, truckers will not suffer those higher gas taxes alone. 
Their additional costs will be shared by every consumer in the 
increased price of everything they transport. At some point, nearly 
everything bought or sold must be shipped to a retailer. So the 
sweeping effect of the gas tax on every consumer, every person, every 
business--certainly the trucking industry but every other business--
will harm our entire economy.
  The pain doesn't stop with trucking. Our Nation's farmers and 
ranchers, who are tasked with producing high-quality goods for much of 
the world, will be irreparably harmed under the House's $2 trillion tax 
on gasoline and $1.3 trillion tax on diesel fuel. Gas and diesel fuel-
powered equipment, ranging from tractors to combines to fertilizing 
systems, are the operational foundation of America's farms and ranches. 
Every extra penny they pay will be seen in the cost of goods and 
certainly the cost of food. Under the climate change legislation, they 
will face $550 million in higher fuel costs in 2020.
  Despite all of this pain we are going to see on our truckers, on our 
family farmers, and on every business, what good will it do? If there 
is a good side, let's look at it. It is supposed to be to help our 
environment. But even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
Administrator admits that unless China and India impose similar 
Draconian taxes and regulations, there will be no effect on world 
temperatures. So what is the purpose of this increase in taxes and 
increase in costs every American will bear? Well, there is no 
improvement because it is certainly common sense to know that if we do 
this unilaterally in the United States and put this tax on our 
refineries, on our exploration companies that are trying to produce 
more energy for our economy at a cheaper price and environmentally 
safely, and if others around the world don't do it--put more caps on 
and more regulations--and they are spewing into the world much heavier 
carbon emissions than the United States does now--if they don't change 
and we do, it will still come to our country. So there will not be any 
effect on the global environment.
  Under the bills going through today, trillion-dollar figures have 
been discussed so nonchalantly in Washington that it seems as if they 
are losing their shock value. Americans must know that $3.6 trillion in 
gas taxes is a real number, and it is going to have a real effect on 
every American.
  We can improve the environment and we can improve the economy.
  One of the things that is not being discussed, as we are talking 
about putting more taxes on the industries that produce energy, the 
bread-and-butter energy of our economy, what isn't being discussed is 
nuclear power. Nuclear power has been shown time and again, where it is 
in place, that it is inexpensive, efficient, and it is environmentally 
safe. There is no carbon emission from a nuclear powerplant.
  So why does the House bill not even address nuclear? Why are we not 
talking, in this administration, about nuclear power, which can be 
clean energy, efficient energy, and which has been proven to also have 
fewer consequences than once thought because the amount of nuclear 
waste has now been lowered to a huge extent and can be safely kept? And 
if we continue our research, we will probably be able to reuse the 
nuclear waste and put it back into more nuclear power. Why aren't we 
pursuing nuclear instead of just putting more taxes and regulations on 
the bread-and-butter energy that is produced in our country?
  We need to reject the cap-and-trade bills that are going through 
Congress right now. We need to focus on environmental policies that 
will make a difference in our environment, that might make a difference 
in our global environment. But certainly unilateral regulations and 
taxes just on America has been absolutely proven not to make a 
difference in the global economy if no

[[Page S10881]]

other country adopts these Draconian measures, which they have all said 
they are not going to do.
  While I stand ready to support clean energy technology, nuclear 
power, I could not possibly support a bill that is going to wreck our 
economy in a very precarious time and that will send jobs away from 
America at a time when we know we need to increase jobs in America. It 
will be sending American jobs overseas where it is easier to do 
business and where regulation is more stable.
  Mr. President, what are we doing? What are we doing talking about 
more taxes and more regulations that will not impact the global 
environment? I hope that as these bills are vetted in committee, we 
will stop and say: Let's do something rational. Let's promote clean 
energy. Let's promote nuclear power. Let's don't hold back those who 
would be willing to make that investment and take that chance.
  We should not pass cap and trade, which will tax and regulate our 
energy industry and it will not help the environment. That is a lose-
lose proposition. I hope Congress and the majority in Congress will see 
that this is the wrong way and stop the cap-and-trade bill.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire is recognized.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak in morning 
business for 15 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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