Pew Center urges vote for Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill (H.R.2454)

June 24, 2009

Dear Representative:

I write to express the support of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES Act), H.R.2454. The ACES Act will help tackle climate change, drive our economic recovery, and advance energy independence. I strongly urge you to vote in favor of this landmark legislation.

The science is clear. As the U.S. Global Change Research Program recently reported, human-induced climate changes are underway in the United States and are projected to grow. We are already experiencing increases in heavy downpours, rising temperature and sea level, rapidly retreating glaciers, thawing permafrost, lengthening growing seasons, lengthening ice-free seasons in the ocean and on lakes and rivers, earlier snowmelt, and alterations in river flows. These changes are projected to grow. In addition, climate change-related threats to human health are expected to increase, including heat stress, waterborne diseases, poor air quality, extreme weather events, and diseases transmitted by insects and rodents.

The ACES Act combines ambitious but achievable targets for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change with a market-based program that will reward business leaders for deploying clean energy technologies as quickly and inexpensively as possible. Enactment of the ACES Act will allow the United States to help lead the efforts toward a global agreement in which the major economies of the world, both developed and developing, play their part to address the climate challenge.

Because of its market-based program and other cost containment measures, the ACES Act carries only a small cost. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the ACES Act would in 2020 have an average annual cost of $175 per household and that those households in the lowest twenty percent by income would actually receive a net benefit of $40 per year. The Environmental Protection Agency projects that the bill would cost American households $80 to $111 a year. For a comparison of these analyses, see the Pew website at http://www.pewclimate.org/acesa [2]. Neither of these estimates account for the benefit the ACES Act would provide to the U.S. public and economy by avoiding the costs of increased climate change. Nor do they account for the fact that the ACES Act will help U.S. businesses lead the race underway to develop clean energy technologies – a race that will dominate the 21st century global economy.

In the days ahead, you will no doubt hear other views of the ACES Act, including many verging on mythology. For example, according to one recently advertised myth, gasoline prices could rise by as much as 77 cents per gallon over the next decade. In fact, EPA projects that under the ACES Act, gasoline prices would be only 25 cents per gallon higher by 2030 – an average increase of less than three pennies per gallon per year. Meanwhile, gasoline prices have swung by more than two dollars per gallon over the last year alone. For more of this myth-busting, see the attached Pew Center paper on “Eight Myths about the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill [3].” A debate this important should be based on fact, not fiction.

The Energy and Commerce Committee has seized its opportunity to begin building a stronger U.S. economy and a better, safer world. It will not be an easy task – but it is one we must begin now. I urge you to build on this work by moving the bill forward. If you have any questions, please have your staff contact Nikki Roy (royn@pewclimate.org [4]).

Sincerely,

Eileen Claussen
President
Pew Center on Global Climate Change