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Climate Change Legislation Needs to Address International Competition |
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June 25, 2009 |
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Trying to finalize and strengthen border adjustment provisions in the climate change legislation so U.S. manufacturers not at competitive disadvantage if other countries don’t participate in the solution to this serious environmental problem. As we put a price on carbon pollution here in the United States, we don’t want U.S. industries to be put at a competitive disadvantage with industries in the developing world (like India and China) that do not have similar controls on their carbon emissions. The bill already provides some relief by giving energy intensive, trade competitive industries (like steel, aluminum, flat glass, etc.) free allowances (an allowance is the right to emit one ton of carbon), but I am working to allow the President and Congress to put a border adjustment on carbon intensive goods that are imported into the U.S. (starting in 2020) from countries that have not made a similar commitment to curbing carbon emissions.
We need to restructure how we use energy in this country. For example, last year we imported more than half the oil we consumed. In total, we spent $449 billion to import all this oil. This money would be much better spent on investments in the US, rather than exporting all this money to OPEC and other countries.
There are also benefits to Michigan by diversifying our energy supplies. For example, the bill requires electricity producers to get 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy by 2020. Of course, a full 80 percent of our energy would still come from other non-renewable sources. Michigan is well positioned to benefit from this. The U.S. is sometimes called the Saudi Arabia of wind energy. We have more wind than any other country on earth. At the same time, it takes up to 400 tons of steel to make each wind turbine tower. This means jobs for the Midwest. Also, each wind turbine has a myriad of machined-tooled parts. This is something we could benefit from producing in Michigan.
The bill also provides $20 billion between 2012 and 2025 in support for advanced vehicle manufacturing to help move us to more efficient vehicles.
Interestingly, new studies indicate that the cost of addressing climate change for consumers will be modest. A new non-partisan study by the Congressional Budget Office projected the cost of the bill (when it is phased-in in 2020) to be about 47 cents a day for the average household. An estimate by EPA says the price will be even less. |
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