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According to Public Citizen's Tyson Slocum in his May 13 analysis, APC fails across the board saying the "Climate Bill Is a Misnomer: It's a Nuclear Energy-Promoting, Oil-Drilling-Championing, Coal Mining-Boosting Gift to Polluters....with a weak carbon-pricing mechanism thrown in."
Worse still, it guts the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. It provides nuclear power incentives at taxpayers expense. Under sections 1101 and 1105, citizens won't have public hearings on nuclear power risks, especially ones in their communities. Section 1102 "increases loan guarantees primarily for nuclear power to a jaw-dropping $54 billion." Considering the industry's high default risk, consumers will be stuck with the bill the way they've paid trillions for Wall Street bailouts.
In section 1103, 12 proposed nuclear plants will get $6 billion in taxpayer-subsidized risk insurance. Section 1121 lets nuclear power operators accelerate depreciation. Section 1121 "provides a 10 percent investment tax credit for new reactors." Under section 1123, the industry gets Advanced Energy Project credits, and it "derives certain tax, bond and grant benefits from investing in nuclear power" from sections 1124, 5 and 6.
More than ever, Big Oil gets to "Drill Baby, Drill" (that assures "Spill Baby, Spill"), including more of it offshore, despite the spreading Gulf disaster, and there's more. Under section 1202, states may keep 37.5 of oil and gas royalties. "That's like saying because more rich people live in California and New York compared to Mississippi and New Mexico, (they) should be able to keep more federal dollars raised from income taxes. Royalty revenue sharing is patently unfair," especially since offshore spills respect no state shorelines or inland areas if they spread.
Big coal will get generous loan guarantees and more. "Section 1412 establishes a (utility-collected) carbon tax paid by ratepayers....to fund carbon capture and storage (CCS) - with no money allocated to rooftop solar or energy efficiency investments." Under section 1431, coal companies are given (taxpayer subsidized) emissions allowances - "an untested, risky strategy that benefits (them) and is gobbling up a lion's share of subsidies" that should go for renewable energy development.
Merchant coal power plants (whose rates aren't regulated) will get about 5% of the handouts, "which will provide opportunities for them to gouge consumers."
Section 1604 says because "voluntary" renewable energy markets are efficient and effective programs, "the policy of the United States is to continue to support" them without the guarantees given fossil fuel and nuclear industry giants.
The bill also promotes carbon offsets trading - a scam to let polluters buy credits from countries or companies whose greenhouse gas emissions fall below their allowed quotas. However, shifting isn't reduction. It simply transfers pollution from one place to another, has no verification mechanism, creates a system wide open to fraud and mismanagement, and allows the same market manipulation shenanigans that created the housing and toxic derivatives bubbles - precisely why energy giants and Wall Street want it.
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