In The News

Clean energy bill means higher taxes, more power for EPA

Highway users say a federal bill aimed at curbing climate change would have tremendous consequences for taxpayers.

Chances are truckers and highway users will be hearing a lot more about HR2454, filed Friday, May 15, by U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-CA, and Ed Markey, D-MA.

Waxman and Markey say the legislation focuses on U.S. energy independence, job creation and pollution reduction.

Critics of the bill are concerned about the introduction of a cap-and-trade tax system and increased power afforded to the Environmental Protection Agency. Critics are also concerned that highway users will be footing the bill for so-called “green” initiatives such as bike paths and mass transit programs.

“If highway users’ and truckers’ resources are being spent to promote bicycling, walking and public transportation, and those sectors aren’t paying into the system, we’re going to be hard-pressed to play in that sandbox,” said Mike Joyce, director of legislative affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

“If we bury our heads in the sand and think that transit and bicycles are going to move people and goods around this country, we’re ignorant.”

OOIDA – along with AAA, AASHTO, the American Highway Users Alliance and other highway user groups – drafted a letter of concern to Waxman and sent a copy to U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-MI, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

“If changes to the transportation planning process are pursued, they should be carefully crafted and structured as part of federal transportation laws, not as part of a new regime administered by a separate agency,” the agencies wrote.

Joyce said the future of transportation policy should include the addition of highway capacity instead of trying to restrict capacity as the bill calls for.

“The environmentalists’ argument back is, wouldn’t it be great if we took all of these cars off the road and put people on mass transit. Sure it would be, but that’s pie in the sky,” Joyce said.

OOIDA is also concerned about cap-and-trade and the impact it would have on consumers, taxpayers, equipment manufacturers, and the cost of doing business.

I see cap-and-trade as an inhibitor to America’s competitiveness,” Joyce said.

Simply explained, cap-and-trade is a system that allows the government to set limits on the amount of pollution a company can emit. The government would issue permits or credits for the amount of pollution companies would be allowed to emit.

Because it would be easier for some companies to meet or beat their pollution limit, the cap-and-trade system would allow them to sell their extra permits or credits to companies that pollute more than their allotted amount.

The Waxman-Markey bill, as introduced, is also calling on the EPA to develop a new policy on heavy-duty truck emissions by the end of 2010. That means changes are coming, Joyce said.

“Sometimes new standards for heavy duty trucks can be good for our members who buy used equipment, but recently new standards and new engines tend to be more costly and less helpful as the industry is forced to comply,” Joyce said.

Republicans are weighing in on the Democrats’ proposed legislation. The list of amendments had topped 400 as of Tuesday, May 19.

“What I am opposed to is increasing taxes. And cap-and-trade is, plain and simple, a tax. It’s an indirect, hidden, sneaky tax, but it’s a tax,” Sen. James Inhofe, R-OK, said in a statement. “And it’s a tax on the American people and businesses that will raise energy prices as well as all goods and services that are produced using energy.”

Waxman and Markey have said since January that legislation of this size and scope will mark the dawn of a clean energy age in America.

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