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Highlights of ACES:
The Right Long Term
Plan: This vital piece of legislation puts the U.S. on the path
to slash the carbon emissions that cause global warming 80 percent
by 2050, necessary to preserve the planet for future generations.
Energy Efficiency: Strong codes to dramatically increase the
energy performance of our buildings as well as lighting and
appliance efficiency programs and energy efficiency requirements for
natural gas utilities.
Electric Vehicles Boost: Significant funds to jumpstart the
development of electric vehicles
Protecting Forests
and Wildlife: Funding for domestic adaptation and significant
funding to cut emissions by reducing international deforestation.
Additional Emission Safeguards: Performance standards for
emissions sources not covered by the cap; Criteria to ensure carbon
offsets are high-quality and limits on potent global warming
pollutants other than carbon dioxide.
The Facts about Cap-and-Trade:
 1.
Cap-and-Trade could cost American households as little as $12 per month.
2.
Twenty-five major U.S. corporations support Cap-and-Trade.
3.
By 2025, A Clean Energy Standard Would Save $95 Billion On Energy & Gas
Bills.
4.
Investment In Clean Energy Technology Will Create Over 1.5 Million
American Jobs.
1.
Cap-and-Trade could cost American households as little as $12 per month.
Contrary to arguments presented by
lobbyists for the coal and oil industries, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency estimates that placing caps on emissions would cost
American households as little as $150 per year or $12 per month. "It
sets a steadily declining ceiling on carbon emissions, and, by creating
a market that rewards companies for slashing CO2 (corporations that
reduce emissions below their allotment can sell them on the open
market), it uses the free enterprise system to wean the country off
fossil fuels and onto renewable energy",
writes
Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate
Change. [EPA,
5/27/09]
2.
Twenty-five major U.S. corporations support Cap-and-Trade.
Companies such as Alcoa, Caterpillar, Dow
Chemical, Duke Energy, Eastman Kodak, General Electric, IBM, Johnson &
Johnson, Lockheed, Nike Inc., Pepsi Co., Rolls Royce North America,
Shell Oil, Siemens Corp., Toyota Motor North America, and Xerox support
federal regulations with goals to reduce total US global warming
pollution.
3.
By 2025, A Clean Energy Standard Would Save $95 Billion On Energy & Gas
Bills.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, in
analyzing a renewable electricity standard that would aim to have 25% of
our electricity come from renewable sources by 2025, found that this
standard would save families and businesses $95 billion in electricity
and natural gas bills through 2030 and spur new investments and hundreds
of thousands of new clean-energy jobs." [Center
for American Progress, 5/19/09]
4.
Investment In Clean Energy Technology Will Create Over 1.5 Million
American Jobs.
Investment in clean energy such as
offshore wind would create four times the number of jobs - triple
the number of jobs paying at least $16 per hour - as the same investment
in the oil industry. [Center for American Progress, Sept. 2008]
Strengthening ACES:
The House cleared the first hurdle but now
the Senate must improve this clean energy jobs bill. We need to clean up
dirty coal plants, slash energy waste, and invest more in clean energy
sources like wind and solar.
This legislation needs to be
strengthened in four key areas:
More Wind, More Solar:
ACES must drive a shift to in U.S. energy
production toward cleaner, cheaper sources like wind and solar much more
quickly.
More Focus on Reducing Energy Waste:
The bill must also prioritize significant
investments in slashing energy waste in order to quickly, cheaply, and
effectively cut emissions, rather than focusing on other unproven and
expensive technologies.
Keep EPA Authority Intact:
A strong energy bill must clean
up dirty coal plants by allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to
keep its existing power under the Clean Air Act.
Hold Polluters Accountable, No More
Handouts: Finally, ACES must
make polluters pay for their carbon pollution in order to fund
investments in clean energy jobs, clean energy; protect consumers,
wildlife, and vulnerable communities rather than rewarding Big Oil, Big
Coal, and other polluters with billions in giveaways.
Clean energy powering our Virginia homes & businesses:
 Investment,
as ACES Act provides, enables our Virginia homes and businesses to
quickly and easily be powered by clean renewable energy and to create
thousands of jobs right here in Virginia:
Researchers with the
Virginia Coastal Energy Consortium
predict that a wind farm with the footprint size of Virginia Beach,
could provide enough clean renewable energy to power over 20% of
the Commonwealth.
-
The
technology for offshore wind exists today and has proven commercially
viable in other parts of world.
-
There are over 8,000 parts in
any one wind turbine. That translates to a lot of jobs.
-
Investment in clean energy
provides far more power than that produced at dirty coal plants
such as the massive $6 billion proposed in Surry VA, and would
emit 5x less pollution and cost less per kilowatt-hour.
-
While the U.S. holds a majority of
the patents involved with solar energy systems, those solar
energy parts are primarily produced in Europe, which drives up
the costs for systems sold in the U.S. Thus we don’t see
solar panels on so many homes and businesses as we should.
The “shot in the arm” investment provided by the ACES Act would
get these systems produced right here, right now.
What's at stake in Virginia:
The crisis we face
with global warming is real, here and happening faster than most had
predicted.
-
Virginia communities rank highest
in the world in terms of assets vulnerable to sea level rise.
Virginia Beach is ranked in the top 10 cities in terms of high
exposure and vulnerability to climate extremes.
-
According to an Ernst & Young
survey, the top insurance risk in 2008 is climate change.
Fifty-five % of insurance companies in the mid-Atlantic area
have stopped writing new policies in Virginia's 19 coastal
communities.
-
Sea level rise, higher salinity
and water temperature increases caused by global warming are
already having a devastating effect on fish and wildlife in
Virginia. Keep in mind that in 2005, Virginia's fishing
industry alone took in more than $1.23 billion.
-
For Virginia's agricultural
industry, global warming means increased drought, precipitation
changes, higher temperatures, and more weeds and pests.
-
Global warming is already
affecting people's health. Virginia is seeing an increasing
number of severe heat waves. Warmer temperatures lead to greater
smog levels which damages lung tissue, increases respiratory and
heart disease, and causes asthma in children. It causes spread
of illnesses, allergens, and diseases like West Nile virus and
salmonella.
-
Sea level rise combined with
greater storm surges hitting Virginia's coast areas create
nightmare scenarios for evacuation efforts, taxing greatly
our already sub-standard public infrastructure.
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TAKE ACTION:
Lobbyists for the oil and coal
industries
are pushing hard for this bill to be nothing more than a
government handout while they keep their status quo polluting ways.
Help us defend, improve, and pass the bill:
Send Senators Warner and Webb
an Email Urging the Support of
an Improved ACES bill
Download, Print &
Collect
Signatures on our
Petition to
Senators Webb &
Warner
Click here for
contact info
for Senators Warner
and Webb
Write a Letter to the Editor
Help pass clean energy legislation.
Letters
to the Editor (LTEs) are one
of the
most widely read sections of the
newspaper. They are a quick, effective
and
continuing means of communicating your message to a wide audience. By
writing a
letter to the editor, you can help
educate the public about the urgent
need
for clean energy legislation and to beat down the false contentions
leveled by Big Oil and Big Coal.
Click here for
contact info on
Virginia's
newspapers and editors.
Click here for
tips on writing good LTEs.
"Cap-and-trade would bring jobs to Virginia"
LTE in Free Lance-Star
Clean Energy Fact Sheets
(click on the links below to
view, download and/or print)
How ACES
Affects Virginia
A Federal Renewable
Electricity
Standard: Good for
Virginia
See where a
cap on carbon
will create
new jobs in Virginia.
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