Joe Barton (R-TX) doesn’t believe that global climate change exists or if it does Man has nothing to do with it. Perhaps he should talk to the families who lost loved ones in last week’s tornados that ripped through the Midwest. Not only were they the worst tornados in recorded history, BUT THEY CAME IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER! Tornados are summertime storms, caused by heating of the atmosphere. In the middle of winter there was enough heat energy to generate more than 15 tornados, some a quarter of a mile wide, that stayed on the ground for up to an hour instead of skipping around like they normally do. Naaaa, no climate change goin’ on here.
The Democratic leadership in the House plans “cap and trade†greenhouse gas legislation that will give incentives to power compaies to cut CO2 emissions. The way it works is the total amount of CO2 emitted is “capped†for power plants. If a power company can produce less than that cap it can “sell†the difference to a company that cannot meet the cap. That way the “green†company can invest in building more clean power plants at the expense of the dirtier technology. Joe doesn’t like that. Possibly because he gets so much money from the energy sector; more than $ half a million in 2006, 20% of his campaign war chest.
“Smokey Joeâ€, a nickname earned for his staunch defense of polluting cement companies in his district, is planning to challenge the science of climate change. He’s building a task force to present evidence that every other climate scientist in the world is wrong. Presumably these “experts†will be provided by power companies. Kinda’ like the presidents of all those tobacco companies testifying that nicotine is not addictive.
There may be a legitimate issue with the proposed legislation; that the technology to capture and store the CO2 produced by coal-fired plants won’t be available when the limits kick in sometime in the next ten years. That possibility was made more certain when the FutureGen project was canceled. FutureGen was a $1.8 Billion federally funded green energy project to build a clean coal fired power plant. Texas, specifically Joe Barton’s district, and Illinois were competing for the project and Illinois won. Suddenly the project was canceled by the DoE. Seems undersecretary of energy C.H. “Bud” Albright may have had a hand in canceling the project. Albright once worked for Joe Barton and is an ex lobbyist for Reliant Energy, the Texas company vying for the FutureGen project. Hmmm, if Joe can’t have it nobody can!
FutureGen has been replaced with a less comprehensive program to test CO2 capture on existing plants, two in Illinois and two in – you guessed it – Texas, one of which is in Joe Barton’s district.
In November we will once again have an alternative to Joe Barton. Steve Bush is running as a Democrat to challenge Barton. In the 2006 race more than 80,000 Texans voted for Barton’s opponent, David T. Harris. If each of those 80,000 voters contributes just $25 to Steve’s campaign we can defeat Smokey Joe and return representation to the people in District six instead of the energy companies and cement plants.
Barton to fight environmental legislation
Andy Hailey