Why Are Energy and Commerce in the Same House Committee?
There has been a lot of buzz about new legislation that has yet to be introduced, but has been released in draft form, by House Democrats Ed Markey and Henry Waxman. Read the draft of the American Clean Energy and Security Act here.
The law is promoted as clean energy legislation, but it gives government support to coal companies, helping them continue the hoax of “clean coal”. Even under the optimistic definitions of the Waxman-Markey legislation, coal burning power plants using carbon sequestration technology (which hasn’t been developed yet) would be allowed to release carbon dioxide at twice the amount allowed from natural gas power plants. This gap shows that the goal of the legislation isn’t truly clean coal – not even a generation from now. The goal is to provide a facade of change behind which coal still burns in its very dirty way.
Why are two Democrats offering such compromised energy legislation, so favorable to dirty 20th century energy industries? Consider the source of their power: Henry Waxman is the chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Ed Markey is the Chair of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
In both of these committees, environmental action is tempered by commercial influence. Energy and global warming are considered in these committees through the lens of corporate needs. Some members of these committees may well be motivated by the need to keep our nation’s air, water and land clean, but the presence of “energy independence” and “commerce” forces, counters their efforts, promoting continued reliance on fossil fuels.
We’re not likely to get the kind of action our country needs on climate change until the “commerce” is taken out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the “energy independence” interests in the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming are shifted into a focus on sustainable energy.
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