Do Coal States Deserve Extra Allowances in Climate Bill?

Fourteen key lawmakers say that coal states DO deserve extra allowances, and they have written a formal letter to Senate Democrats urging them to say the same thing.

Led by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), this group of senators signed and sent a letter to Senators Reid, Boxer, Baucus and Kerry asking for the bill to be changed so it would provide additional free carbon permits to states that are heavily reliant on coal energy.

Reuters reports that, “the bill passed by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee would require polluters to get permits for the greenhouse gases they release into the atmosphere.

Initially, industries would receive most of the permits for free, with local electric distribution companies allocated 30 percent of the free permits. The current formula for divying up those permits would probably lead to higher costs for utilities in more sparsely populated areas where coal use is prevalent.”

The climate bill’s current formula for allocating carbon permits is based 50 percent on emissions and 50 percent on sales. This means that coal dependent states, which are also the likely to be the least populated, would not get enough permits to adequately cover their current emissions.

The senators sponsoring the bill feel that this would result in unfair price increases for residents of these states.

“We believe it is essential that we strive to formulate legislation that equitably distributes transition assistance across individuals, as well as states and regions and economic sectors,” the Democratic Senators said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Reuters).

The letter proposed that instead of taking sales into account, the distribution of free carbon permits should be based solely on emission level, thus prioritizing the coal states and possibly punishing those states that are already doing a good job of controlling their emissions.

Do these senators have a legitimate case? Or is this just another ploy to stall the climate legislation and water down regulations until they are no longer effective?

If letter is successful, and the formula for permits is altered, it may eliminate any sense of urgency that heavy polluters are feeling to make changes now.

Image Credit: SourceWatch.org

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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James M.

4:36AM PST on Jan 14, 2010

Let them pay more like everyone else, then maybe they will look for cleaner and cheaper alternatives like the rest of us already do.

send a green star

pierluigi b.

1:35AM PST on Dec 28, 2009

More renewable energy to save our planet!

Margaret D.

2:49AM PST on Nov 29, 2009

You've got to be kidding!

Janna S.

11:59AM PST on Nov 23, 2009

What happened here?!

Ott D.

3:25PM PST on Nov 19, 2009

roger H.: this american hunger for more and more electricity, is it an unalterable fact? isn't it more of an appetite? how about curbing it, being more moderate, not wanting it ALL, immediately? how about contenting ourselves with a bit less?

Jewels S.

2:08PM PST on Nov 19, 2009

I do live in a city so there is bus service. If you ask me it is sucky service. I walk to work and home because they raised the price of the bus and give worse service than before and it was bad before. You missed my point though. All I keep hearing is "can't" or it is too hard. I am focused everyday right now on buying a house and putting solar on it. If you knew what I make you would think it is impossible but I am finding every way to cut corners. I shop at a dollar store, I don't have cable, don't have a car. Anything to get into my own house to start getting involved in the alternative fuels. I am not waiting for government or big business to bring it to me. They eventually will but I want to be part of the solution. Do what you want but I can't wait for it to come to me anymore. I would rather sacrifice some comforts that most think are necessary to start changing the tide as soon as possible.

11:04AM PST on Nov 18, 2009

Even though I am in favor of renewable energy, the fact is that with the American hunger for more and more electric power, we can't supply all of our requirements using renewable energy and can't build wind farms and solar farms fast enough to fill our country's requirements. Until someone comes up with a way to convert this country realistically to renewable energy we will still be stuck with having to use high output coal fired power plants to fill our electrical requirements for a while longer. We need to concentrate right now on building factories to make the components for renewable energy sources before we can do away with coal fired power plants. Wind turbines and solar panels don't just magically appear just because we want them to.

leslie c.

1:05AM PST on Nov 18, 2009

Larry R Sustainable Development sucks. You wanna know why? Because the UN wants to cram us humans into high rise apts(thats after 90% of the worlds population is gone)to be serviced by railroad trains. It also includes over 90% returned to the wilderness.Read the Wildlands Project (its been renamed), It would be abolishment of private property,consumerism,pastures,.....It would be the perfect utopia for the rich elite while the rest of us live like crammed rats. For the girl who hasn't had a car since Iraq started do you have good bus service where you live? All this crap about automobiles...why don't they build more subways.We took them in Europe. Sustainable Medicine is also crap.It pretty much says when you're old and you get sick,you should just die.All the crap about manmade GW is a scam.Jupiter,Pluto has had GW too.Its the sun and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it. What we can control is pollution,population,and getting rid of GMO foods,getting rid of all the chemicals put in our foods and land.Look up Berit Kjos and her UN articles.F...the UN.They (IPCC)push false info,they are not climotologists,they are a political force with their notions on what this world should be.They have purposively deleted,omitted,lied and the scientists they hire go along with the flow cause if they contradict their bosses they are out of a job.

12:45AM PST on Nov 18, 2009

Sure I would like to get my power from windmills,solar panels and so on. But its still out of reach of Americans monetarily. So I'm still paying for my electricity every month and still not getting on alternative means of electricity.

Carole D.

7:58AM PST on Nov 17, 2009

I grew up in a Pennsylvania coal town in the late forties and the fifties. I was a teenager before I knew that snow didn't always turn black within 24 hours. I grew up watching bent over, exhausted men trudge home, only to die an early death.

There's no such animal as clean coal. Using coal for energy is backward and idiotic. However, we have become a backward and idiotic country, haven't we? We get worse rather than better. The rest of the world is passing us by, while almost 2/3 of the American people don't even believe in the theory of evolution.

Down here in Mississippi the local power company is going to build a coal-fired power plant with coal they get from some kind of strip mining in a county that should be farmed, not raped. Scientific groups have come to the conclusion that this state has more than enough energy to meet our needs for decades to come and needs a filthy power plant like it needs more fatties. However the powers-that-be, the money people, always get their way. Isn't that the American way? Money before intelligence.