ACCCE Statement Regarding Passage of State House Bill 2017
2008-05-13 01:42:02 -
- The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) today issued this statement in response to passage of Arizona House Bill 2017:
"ACCCE applauds Arizona legislators for passing HB 2017, and urges Governor Napolitano to sign this bill.
"Governor Napolitano, along with leaders of 17 other states, recently signed a declaration introduced at Yale last month urging states to recommit themselves to call on congressional leaders and presidential candidates to work with them to establish a comprehensive national climate policy. ACCCE believes that her signing of HB 2017 is consistent with her support of the Yale declaration.
"House Bill 2017 is a positive step forward in recognizing the need to have a uniform, single federal policy that addresses greenhouse gas emission reductions.
"Action can be a good thing but one state, or even a region, cannot adequately address this global issue.
"Individual state laws and regional approaches will create an unnecessary patchwork of requirements that will be both ineffective in addressing environmental concerns and costly to Arizona consumers.
"By focusing on such programs, there is a strong chance the state and/or regional mandates will conflict with future federal mandates, in essence double taxing states where local mandates reside. This would result in increased economic hardship for the working families of Arizona.
"Higher electricity costs will hit residential consumers and businesses, at the same time, other energy costs are already escalating and the country is facing a recession. This hurts the lowest income families and people on fixed incomes the most. Arizona also could lose industry and jobs to neighboring states due to high electricity costs.
"In addition, it becomes next to impossible for other countries to leverage and use any number of strategies enacted by several states or regions in our country. Instead, a single, uniform federal program is much easier to adapt elsewhere to address what is a global challenge.
"Therefore, ACCCE believes a regional approach is not the best way for Arizona to show its leadership in addressing the challenge of climate change.
"A regional approach, such as that advocated by the Western Climate Initiative, to a global problem is particularly concerning since the U.S. Congress is in the process of developing some sort of national program to regulate greenhouse gas emissions within the next few years.
"There are better ways states can continue environmental progress and address climate change without harming the economy, including increasing energy efficiency programs and funding advanced clean coal technology that can achieve real and measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions without putting Arizona's economy at risk and forcing Arizona families to face a huge increase in electricity costs.
"ACCCE urges Governor Napolitano to sign this bill and embrace a uniform national approach to solve this global problem."
About ACCCE
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is a non-profit, non-partisan partnership of companies involved in producing electricity from coal. Because coal is America's most abundant energy resource, ACCCE supports energy policies that balance coal's vital role in meeting our country's growing need for affordable and reliable electricity with the need to protect the environment. ACCCE also advocates for the development and deployment of advanced clean coal technologies that will produce electricity with near-zero emissions. Headquartered in Alexandria, VA, ACCCE has more than 40 members that represent more than $190 billion in annual revenues and employ more than 360,000 Americans. For more information, visit www.cleancoalusa.org or www.americaspower.org.
American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE)
Brad Jones, 703-302-1226
bjones@cleancoalusa.org
