Cap gun: GOP targets Perriello for energy vote
"It takes courageous leadership, as we find in our president and in our Congressman," said Delegate David Toscano, shown here with his Congressman.PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER
The so-called Cap and Trade Bill, officially known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which passed the House of Representatives Friday, June 26 (after an explosion of favors for recalcitrant legislators), has earned freshman Congressman Tom Perriello (D-Ivy) the distinction of being among just 14 lawmakers, according to pundit E.J. Dionne, targeted by the national Republican Party. And Perriello appears to be the only one garnering his own television ad.
"Tell him to stop voting with Nancy Pelosi and start voting for Virginians instead," says the anti-Perriello television commercial and a radio ad, both of which call the bill a "massive new tax."
At a Wednesday morning press conference on the Downtown Mall, the Democratic Perriello appeared undaunted– and unwilling to grant the argument that the bill will harm Virginians.
"Virginia wins," said Perriello. "I'm sick of going to the pump and sending my money to people who don't like us very much. I'm proud that our country has risen over special interests."
Standing under statues of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe at the corner of City Hall, City Councilor David Brown amplified the theme.
"This is going to save money and create jobs," said Brown.
Besides thanking Perriello for this vote, the group– which included green energy businessperson Jason Ivey and Delegate David Toscano– was assembled to celebrate the release of a new report, "The High Cost of Fossil Fuels," by Environment Virginia, a Richmond-based eco-advocacy group.
The only question came from citizen Joe McCloskey who asked why Virginia hasn't offered any tax credits for alternative energy sources. Delegate Toscano responded that several such bills have been introduced in the General Assembly, only to get "bottled up" in the House of Delegates, which currently has a Republican majority.
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After independent watchdog organization Factcheck.org blasted the ad for possibly overstating the financial impact of the bill on American families, Roanoke television station WDBJ declined to air the commercial.
–originally posted and 7:23am 0n July 1 and last updated 5:13pm Thursday, July 2
32 comments
Climate change is a hoax. 'nuff said.
Clarify: man-made climate change is a hoax. 'nuff said.
@billy bob, I was all over the place because I was responding to points brought up by TortFeezer.
"Maybe the credit bubble that has been built up over the last three decades was unsustainable no matter who won the election last November" I'll say.
"Mindlessly clinging to a culture where consumption, waste and pollution are literally worshiped is childish." NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, is more childish than Bush's $700B and Obama's $800B. All on credit. Oh, except for all of those energy credits that have been given away initially. They have no money backing them either. How mature is it to create artificial wealth and then spend it? Throwing invented resources at at problems is the childish way we have been complicating problems for decades, even before I was born.
I applaud you generation fro wanting to cut down on energy consumption. I don't applaud its mindless means. By the time the piper will be paid, it will be paid by your generation, not mine.
I am not a Republican. I have many more Dem friends than Repub friends. I don't think many in either party has much sense. Please read the article linked to above and determine whose behavior is childish. Children think that money will grow on tress and therefore there is no reason to consider cost when making decisions.
I won't go all over the place with this, but I'd like to say here that over the billions of years of the earth's existence, it has be colder and it has been warmer and will continue to be so, and the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmospherd (that is measured in parts/billion) isn't destroying anything.
I read the NYTimes article, if that's what you mean, and it's true that the bill is a mess. Bills such as this usually are, but if it is a step towards reducing the consumption of fossil fills and/or the trapping of CO2 gases, then it probably is a positive thing on balance.
However, it is true that one day the sun will go supernova. At that point, this tempest in a teapot will matter not at all.
And as far as the hundreds of billions of dollars that you mention, I'm with you. I think Obama missed a real opportunity to bite the bullet for real. But reelection is a priority for him and no politician gets reelected seeking wise sacrifice of the populace.
"I think Obama missed a real opportunity to bite the bullet for real." And, that is my disappointment.
Although I think I've convinced myself not to expect any more out of one politician than I do another, I never fail to get angry with myself for subconciously hoping. Shame on me!
Actually, I haven't figured out how this cap and trade thing is going to reduce C02 emissions. If you have 100 energy credits and I have 100 energy credits we are putting out 200 equivalents. If I reduce my use to the equivalent of 50 credits and sell them to you, assuming you are not buying more than you need, I'm using 50 and you're using 150, so together we are still using 200. Although money has changed hands, the emissions have not been reduced.
If you don't buy the extra credits, how does you business expand and you increase your workforce? If your neighbor wishes to start a new business, does he first have to go around and buy credits since he wasn't in last week's allocation frenzy?
I can easily see down the road that some corporations will be able to sustain themselves not by selling products, but by trading in energy credits.
Any country that is $10 TILLION dollars in debt is not at the top of the economic heap.
@C-Ville Eye, other than having three brances of government, I find it hard to see any resemblance between this country now and the country the Founding Fathers knew.
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On the contrary, the FFs knew what we are seeing today very well. That's why they built the Constitution the way they did, and were so VERY hard on corporations. It took an act of congress to incorporate. They had suffered unfair influence corporations had over the average citizens, and how easy it was for them to get into their pockets.
I don't think they will forget this one in 2010.. thats about the time we will stsrt paying double for energy and anything that is produced by it... (which is everything)
Russ wrote: If I was like many of the democrats who vote in two or more districts, I’d be after those ââ?¬Å?representaives” too.
Identify them, prove it, and I'll meet you at the Federal Court House to swear out a warrant for their arrest.
CVile Eye: I am strong supporter of Perriello, and on the face of it, I am glad to see for once a bill that finally addresses the reality of the world we are living in, and will live in. One that doesn' t just bend over for big businesss.
BUT...I do not like the bill as it is written and voiced that opinion. IF we are going to do this, we have to either enforce pariticipation from the cheap manufacturing countries, OR, place a 'climate tax' on their imported goods and services. This balances out the competitive factor.
I disagree that encouraging tougher standards hurts us in the long run, because it speeds better technology development more quickly, but we can keep jobs from migrating in the short term through those tarrifs which will grant domestic inductry a time cushion, and place pressure on the cheap labor countries to either buy the better technology, or develop their own, if they want to come and sell to the great consuming elephant.
The GOP answer is just to complain and trash our own environment and lower our own standards. Instead, we want to raise the bar and force traders to either jump that bar, or get left outin the cold.
Another bill that Perriello didn't read. What a farse of a "representative".
@Russ: Why single out Perriello? NOBODY read the bill.
Mequa -- You must not be from his district. I single him out because he is the only representative I have in Congress. This is where my vote counts. If I was like many of the democrats who vote in two or more districts, I'd be after those "representaives" too.
None of them read any bill. They just have their staffs just go through them to see if their special interests supporters are taken care of. The second link provided above details my comment.
I wonder were are the ardent Perriello supporters? Why haven't they contributed their shallow hot air to this conversation? Don't they want to quote what he said in his email explaining his vote or are they too embarrassed? Why aren't they telling us what bad people we are and how they are Saving the Earth?
Expensive water, expensive energy - why don't they just tax the heck out of people?
BTW, other than a handful of teenagers, I don't know anyone personally who has gotten a job. Can those people sign in?
@TortFeezer, "One that doesn’ t just bend over for big businesss." You obviously didn't read the article referred to above and noticed who exactly got the FREE creduts.
" This balances out the competitive factor." No, India and China are currently developing markets in Asia, Africa and Australia for their "cheap" goods, without tariffs, and we'll just be paying more. Just like we aren't the only ones with a stock market, we are not the only consumers in the world. That's why the G-8 is becoming the G-20. Besides, do we really want to get into trade wars with China, who is currently holding $2T of our debt? Since the value of our money is based upon nothing and there are some in Germany and China that are calling for another world currency standard other than the dollar, I don't think we'll be issuing any tariffs any time soon.
"... and place pressure on the cheap labor countries to either buy the better technology, or develop their own..." The US is not in the forefront of new energy technology, e.g. Germany is miles ahead on wind, diesel, and solar. India is way ahead on diesel trucks and heavy equipment.
Thanks for responding.
Cville Eye, your last post is a little bit all over the place, but I'll point out that you may be right that we will be paying more. But maybe the prices we've been paying have been artificially low. Maybe the credit bubble that has been built up over the last three decades was unsustainable no matter who won the election last November.
Frankly, I think that WE are the generation that should bite the bullet. This is what Thomas Paine encouraged the colonists to do.
Barack Obama noted in his inaugural address to the nation that it is time to put away childish things. Mindlessly clinging to a culture where consumption, waste and pollution are literally worshiped is childish. You and your friends in the republican party can continue down that path, but I doubt that you will find rewards there.
CVILLE EYE: Don't blame me for your ability or inability to have a cohesive thought or post. Be accountable for your opinions and posts. I am about mine.
"No, India and China are currently developing markets in Asia, Africa and Australia for their ââ?¬Å?cheap” goods, without tariffs, and we’ll just be paying more."
Yah think? Only, it hasn't exactly worked out as planned has it? Because India and Asia all get their money from US consumers as well. For all the supposed decoupling, those developing markets were hit even harder then those in the West, primarily the US. Besides which, China can develop all the contacts it wants, it is so inefficient and resource poor, that all it has had is no environmental standards and slave labor to bank on. You hit that, and they WILL be forced to either become more efficient, or go out of busineess. Why? Because the rest of the world is too poor to afford their inefficiency.
I do not doubt that there are business winners and losers in this bill. But look at all we have garnered economically from the Internet, and the private unregulated market sure didn' t develop that, id it?
Get real folks. All resources are scarce, and its time we started accepting the real cost of a clean environment.
WWJD............What would Jefferson do? From TJ's first inaugural address, happiness and prosperity rested upon a "wise and frugal government . . . which shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned"
@Publius, other than having three brances of government, I find it hard to see any resemblance between this country now and the country the Founding Fathers knew.
C'ville Eye, sadly, I understand your perspective. My only hope is that the pendulum will swing back at some time.
The most sophisticated brainwashing operation in known human history has us all under its spell. Think not? Then pull yourself away from the screen [ala Infinite Jest] and try not to die crying at how badly we all need to laugh away this catastrophe that is our public policy. Orchestrate an alternative that is reality and sanity based in opposition to the hoaxes and frauds rushed and forced upon our representatives. Fusion energy, hydrogen powered automobiles, and those technologies that come out of resolute determination to work our way out of this miasma.
If any of you think this bill has anything to do carbon emissions your an idiot, this bill is to provide the liberial govt with enough $$$ to push their social agenda, if they wanted to reduce carbon emissions they would go nuclear.
The BIG problem with the Cap-and-Trade legislation is that it creates a "markeet" where companies can buy and sell carbon credits. Theoretically, over time, government policy and increased cost of these credits will reduce pollution. Perhaps. But the big Wall Streeet banks and brokerages lobbied for this bill.....they will control the "market" and they buying and selliong of the carbon credits, thought to be worth as much as $2 trillion. Whose interests do you think they'll pursue?
This bill presumes that the "marketplace" will operate effectively and efficiently. It won't. Just like the big boys manipulated the stock market in the 1920s, just like they created the tech bubble in the 1990s and like they pumped up the mortgage market recently, unabashed greed will drive this market too.
The loser, as usual, is most likely to be the average American citizen.
It is a shame that all you have to do is show a picture of the moon to a supposedly educated society to convince that society that it is seeing the earth's future. Al Gore, the politician, understands this very well. Tom Perriello and his benefactor, Soros, understands this very well. Isn't the American public tired of the endless succession of "crises" that it's supposed to be experiencing: automobile crisis, banking crisis, stock crisis, energy crisis, transportation crisis, Middle East crisis, Sudan crisis, hunger crisis and now climate crisis brought on by a dependence upon foreign oil, coal and natural gas. All the time citizens are allowing for financial
"solutions" and somebody's getting wealthy. Thank goodness the nuclear power industry is there to support all of the regional conferences and global conventions to give air to these crises and is always waiting in the wings to help. Just keep looking at the pictures of the moon and keep on coming up with the money. There's a new world order to enrich.
GOP blowing in the wind. Have to agree with Sabato
"It's an awfully long time to November 2010. It's going to be difficult for most people to remember this."
and besides looks like this district is changing--think Goode better move further South
Shows where their priorities are. First they spend over a million dollars just to delay Al Franken's move to Washington, and now they target one Congressman 17 months before the next election. The Republicans are also already targeting other Republicans who voted for the energy bill. It's what they do. Their world is black and white - not only do they not see gray, they seem to believe that anything other than absolute ideological purity is blasphemy.
If this is the best they can do, Perriello may want to go ahead and buy a home in Northern Virginia because he's going to be there for a long, long time if he wants to.
ââ?¬Å?It is unprecedented,” Mr. Barton said, ââ?¬Å?but at least it’s transparent.”
Soros' pet, Perriello targeted Goode a year and a half before Perriello announced his candidacy. That's politics. So is the buying of votes.
I received a email from Perriello saying how groundbreaking this vote was. I wonder what will be the ramifications down the road, probably more unemployment.
TortFreezer - Are you associated with all the big business that is pushing for this bill to create a carbon trading market? If you think that this last market crash based on shakey securities and deivatives of the government pumped real estate market was bad, just wait for the next market bubble in a carbon trading smoke and mirrors securities and derivitives market. At least the real estate bust was based on an understandable real asset.
Oh thats right, sorry, the government will get the regulation thing right this time around.
I support the party that is for less government and less taxes. Which is that?
"I support the party that is for less government and less taxes. Which is that?"
Unfortunately neither right now. Both mainstream parties have and are sticking it to the middle class. If the current bills on the table are passed there are going to be serious consequences within 3 years. Businesses will not be able to sustain workers and the tax burden so guess who suffers. Workers can expect stagnent wages, increased tax rates, and high gas prices more so than now.
The next presidential election will be decided by the famous question "Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?"
Cluck cluck and cluck....
Periello is a sad little phuck who can't think for himself.