COUNTERPOINT: GOP candidate right to spurn this bill
By Wayne Allard
Published August 1, 2008 at 8 p.m.
To say the least, I'm sick and tired of a "do-nothing" Congress. The painful price of energy is affecting every aspect of our daily lives, yet not a hint of a solution seems to be imminent in Washington, D.C.
While increasing domestic production of fossil fuels and conserving energy is the immediate solution necessary to lower prices, the long-term answer is clearly renewable energy.
Creating an incentive for renewable-energy development through the tax code is a great start. Tax incentives result in market-driven demand and make a real difference for consumers. But as we look to expand choices and create solutions to our energy needs, we need to be careful not to jump onboard proposals such as H.R. 6049, the so-called Renewable Energy Job Creation Act.
This legislation sounds like a win-win, but it really offsets temporary tax breaks with permanent tax increases. Levying new taxes against American companies will harm our economy by encouraging companies to move their headquarters overseas.
Job growth certainly is tied to creating a manageable tax structure. Many of the small businesses that could provide jobs and produce products that grow our economy and help us move to a renewably fueled nation can ill afford to see permanent increases in taxes.
It is ironic that a bill with "Job Creation" in the title actually could cause America to lose jobs and seems to place an emphasis on giving trial lawyers an unnecessarily healthy tax break.
So, if a bill increases taxes, costs us American jobs and gives trial lawyers a tax break, I become a little hesitant to throw my support behind it in the name of increasing "renewable energy."
And no doubt Sen. John McCain had a similar reaction to this legislation, which is why he has opposed it, too. A poison pill covered with frosting is the last thing Coloradans want to see waved around as a solution.
The good news is there are several bills in the Senate that would extend renewable-energy tax credits without helping a special interest group, in this case trial lawyers.
I am a co-sponsor of S. 590, the Securing America's Energy Independence Act, as well as S. 822, the "Extend the Energy Efficiency Incentives Act." These bills would extend and expand current renewable energy tax credits, including a revised tax credit to include all solar-derived electricity.
These bipartisan bills encourage greater use of renewable energy without including handouts for special-interest groups.
As founder and co-chair of the Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, I clearly understand the major role that renewable sources of energy must play in our national energy policy. Unfortunately, we could write a blank check to the renewable fuels industry today and still not meet our country's massive need for energy.
Options like nuclear power, responsible oil-shale development, and increased use of clean coal and natural gas must fill the gap in the short term as we move toward a renewable-fuel-based economy.
After all, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming have more potential energy in the shale rocks of Western Colorado than the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. The only responsible thing to do is at least put forth regulations that would govern the oil-shale leasing process and let industry show us what they can do by a phased-in development process.
In the end, our solution lies in finding more energy and using less right now. High energy prices are one of the biggest challenges facing the people in Colorado, and I will be working hard to find solutions for the present and future as I wrap up my tenure in the Senate.
As a fifth-generation Coloradan, I care too deeply about the environmental and economic needs facing our state to do anything less.
Wayne Allard. R-Colo., is a U.S. senator.
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August 2, 2008
3:12 p.m.
Suggest removal
BikerChick writes:
..
Gutsy comments from our departing U S Senator Allard. Nice surprise.
He recognizes that the shift from the old paradigm to the new paradigm is a long and arduous process.
He recognizes that those who click their heels together three times and hope the tooth-fairy will come to our rescue need to have their heads examined.
Smart, seasoned, accomplished Colorado folks are aware that the U S can and must become the big-gun in the world energy situation. Savvy Coloradans realize that petrol-based energy, along with coal, will rule the roost for the next thirty years as we investigate, develop and implement the best of the best alternative energy sources and usage devices.
Allard encourages us to think boldly, and get a move on. He doesn't whine.
How refreshing. There is no need nor benefit to finger-pointing.
The 'Colorado Delegation' in the U S Congress could stand tall and work industriously in harmony as 'We-the-People' demand that Colorado become the U S leader in the future of our national move toward energy independence.
To do that we ALL MUST work at a pace similar to our WW-II effort - to become the best producer of coal and oil-based energy products to get us through the next thirty years. At the same time, and with the same fervor, Colorado MUST become the U S National alternative energy developer and builder of energy-efficient 'engines.'
All of that is readily accomplished by making certain that Colorado is mecca for the private energy corporations. What is YOUR Governor doing to make that happen ? What are YOUR U S Senators and Members of the U S House of Representatives doing to put partisan politics aside and work arm-in-arm in favor of energetically moving toward the best possible solutions for Coloradans ?
YOUR job is to watch the wizards behind the curtain. When and if anyone, such as Ritter or Reid or Pelosi, does anything to mess up the unified national effort, we must expose them and dump them on their proverbial ears. They know better.
We need a ten-year abeyance of political bias nonsense, and we need it now.
..
August 3, 2008
8:14 a.m.
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vudumom writes:
EXCELLENT!!! BikerChick!!
August 3, 2008
11:55 a.m.
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fatheromalley writes:
We must get off of Foreign Oil but our current focus is NOT that but controlling CO2.. thus most of our endeavors are how to get our electrical powerplants off of coal, oil or natural gas and replace those with "renewable energy". Yet solar and wind farms cannot be the answer simply because with a 24/7 world we need more than 6 hours a day of peak production and that means durng cloudy and windless days..
The transportation industry uses 70% of our oil. We import 60% of our needs. That means quite simply the more we spend our resources to replace our transportation industry's dependence on oil, expecially foreign oil the more vigorous our economy will be.
There is an energy source that you don't have to drill for. You don't have to kill for. It is the most abundant source of energy on the planet and in the universe..
We have a technology that is 100 years old, it's use includes established environmental steps of recycling. It already has the replace/repair infrastructure in place and is backward compatible to every transportation vehicle made, including Jet Aircraft, Trains and 18 wheelers that deliver our goods.
We should reduce our priorities to one challenge in the energy field, and that is to marry the most prolific energy source in the universe (every HydroCarbon contains it) and this current technology. Hydrogen run Internal Combustion Engines.. neat little gizmos like Hybrid cars, Battery cars, do not address these basic needs TODAY.. this marriage of energy to CURRENT technology does!
This past summer has showed us that America no longer controls it's own time table to get off of foreign oil. We've had over 30 years of do nothing. .not only the lack of drilling, but the lack of retooling to the new energy source...
We need to reform out tax code that punishes success to give us the speed needed to re-tool successfully.
Why keep tithing to Allah, supplying those that want to kill us? But that is a whole other post.. grin...
Senator Allard has done absolutely nothing to change our current 64,000 page tax code, in fact he defends it.. and Salazar is no better..Udall is not better and Schaffer (sp?) is no better..
Our current focus on CO2 is blinding us to the answers we need to lower energy costs and oil dependency.
Our only hope is YOU. NOT "them".. contact your local, state and federal reps today.. copy paste this post and see what type of canned responses you get..
www.fairtax.org
www.grassfire.org
www.votesmart.org
www.fatheromalley.com
Love to all,
Father O'Malley
August 5, 2008
8:34 p.m.
Suggest removal
Castle writes:
WAYNE ALRED writes: "Creating an incentive for renewable-energy development through the tax code is a great start. Tax incentives result in market-driven demand and make a real difference for consumers.
Why give a tax incentive? Why not just reduce or elimenate corporate taxes? You would see a surge in R&D and prices on everything would come down. Corporations DON'T pay corporate taxes, they are passed on to the consumer in higher prices. Elimentae corporate taxes and every one benifits. Companies have more for expansion, new employees, new more effecient equipment and R&D and I pay less.