09.23.09

Perry’s cap and trade photo op – UPDATED

Posted in Around The Nation, Around The State, Commentary, Energy, Right Wing Lies at 12:32 pm by wcnews

Texas Gov. Rick Perry railed on the Cap & Trade legislation, aka the Waxman-Markey bill that is making it’s way through Congress, at the Federal Climate Change Legislation Summit. The AAS’s Jason Embry points us to this NYT article in which Perry’s “Chicken Little-esque” comments were rebuffed by the state’s Deputy Comptroller.

Mr. Perry’s gloomy forecast leaned heavily on statistics from the Texas comptroller’s office, which anticipates that the Waxman-Markey bill would cost the state 137,000 jobs by 2020.

Yet according to Deputy Comptroller Martin Huber (sic), who also spoke at the meeting, these figures do not include potential employment gains from the increased production of green energy. These could be substantial, as Texas currently leads the nation in wind power generation.

In other words, he left out the “good news” from the good news/bad news scenario.  But when looking at the recent TPJ report on the cash that’s been dumped into the GOP side of the GOP Primary for governor thus far, (Senator v. Governor:  GOP Pumps $29 Million Into First Round of Slugfest [.pdf]), it’s easy to see why Perry left out the good news, (from page 7 of the report).

The top three industries funding Governor Perry also were the leading bankrollers of Senator Hutchison’s state campaign. The industry groups with the biggest investments in these campaigns were: 1. Energy & Natural Resources; 2. Finance and 3. Miscellaneous Business (the top-contributor lists for Perry and Hutchison identify the big guns from these industries). See the last section for an industry analysis of Hutchison’s federal funds. [Emphasis added].

That’s right the energy sector is number one on the list. So it’s no surprise that Perry’s going to bat for the industry, and wants to offer “incentives” – give them money in the form of tax breaks – to tempt them to stop polluting the environment so much.  From Embry’s First Read in the AAS there’s some good commentary that didn’t get much play at summit, which “was heavy on panelists from the energy industry”.

Tom “Smitty” Smith of Public Citizen said Perry was failing to consider “the enormous consequences of global warming on Texans and their pocketbooks,” citing rising electric costs related to higher temperatures.

“Study after study has indicated we could change the climate dramatically and reduce the raging temperatures through energy efficiency, renewables and sensible changes to the way our cars are powered that don’t cost as much as the continued increase of global warming will cost,” Smith said. “What Governor Perry is ignoring is the fact that it’s not just increasing temperatures, but it’s the effect of those temperatures on our crop yields, on the amount of water that we have in our lakes, and the enormous cost that will occur as we relocate our industries away from the coast as a result of seal-level rise.”

The Tuesday event was heavy on panelists from the energy industry, although Smith was part of the day’s final panel. Jim Marston of the Environmental Defense Fund told the Statesman’s Asher Price that the event was more photo-op than fact-finding summit.

“The reason why it clearly isn’t serious is they don’t talk to the best scientists in the state, and they have an economic analysis done by someone who only looks at the cost and not the benefit of bill,” Marston said. “They don’t look at science, and they don’t do real economics. They bring in ideological folks. They bring in the Heritage Foundation. It’s a bunch of folks who are going to say the governor is right, vote for him.”

Marston said there was little advance warning about the event. “This is all politics,” he said. “Other governors have actually had summits where they try to actually get the facts.”

That puts the summit in context. Yes, while there are arguments to be made on both sides and a compromise to behad, that would take each side giving a little. But, like we can see with health care, that’s not how the GOP operates.  When their campaign contributors say no change in current policy, the GOP just says no.  And don’t try and bring facts and science into the discussion, they hate facts and science.

[UPDATE]: As if on cue, Pickens endorses Perry.  Even though they disagree on Cap & Trade.

Perry and Pickens differ on a key energy issue, federal climate legislation that would impose a system to reduce greenhouse gases. Perry says the measure, known as cap and trade, would kill jobs in Texas and amount to a new energy tax; Pickens supports such legislation, saying it would serve his goals for wind and solar power and more transmission lines.

[UPDATE]: After Perry’s comments  earlier in the week this news about those tax incentives can’t be welcome, Texas drops out of top ten for best business tax climate.

States like Texas and Florida, which use tax incentives to lure economic development, are damaging their own business climates in the long run, the nonpartisan Tax Foundation declared in a report released Tuesday.

The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank that rates the tax structures of all 50 states, argued that targeted incentives act as a band-aid solution to compensate for an otherwise poor business tax climate. Citing examples from Texas and Florida, which have increasingly used tax incentives in recent years, the authors of the report argue that such incentives narrow the tax base as they attract a few businesses, forcing these states to raise taxes or cut spending in the future.

Well that’s interesting coming from a right of center, business centric, think tank like the Tax Foundation. The report can be found here.

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