News for the Ninth

By Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, 9th District of Missouri

Cap-and-trade legislation is not the answer to our energy needs and will be devastating to our nation's economy, but the Majority in Congress and President are seeking to use the devastating BP oil spill as a political bargaining chip to try and push this costly legislation.

This disaster should not become a political football while thousands of Americans along the Gulf Coast, and potentially beyond, struggle to defend their livelihoods in the wake of this environmental disaster. It is increasingly troublesome that debate on the national energy tax in the form of climate change legislation has resumed even though it would do nothing to improve cleanup of the Gulf or little to prevent future spills. This latest political maneuvering is an unfortunate distraction to the cleanup efforts.  

Earlier this year, Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman introduced the Senate Majority's cap-and-tax legislation that broadly reflects the main provisions contained in the House's national energy tax bill that unfortunately passed the House last summer.  Like the House bill, the Kerry-Lieberman plan amounts to a national energy tax that will raise energy costs and kill jobs while unemployment stands at almost 10 percent.

Last June, I received many calls, letters, and emails asking me to oppose cap-and-trade legislation when it came through the House. During my subsequent travels throughout Missouri's 9th District, you have made it clear that you recognize the disastrous impacts that cap-and-trade legislation will have on manufacturing, agriculture and small businesses. We must move forward with an "all of the above" strategy that focuses on developing and using all forms of America's energy potential including, oil, natural gas, coal, wind, solar, bio-fuels, nuclear power, and efficiency measures.  Not only will this lessen our dependence on foreign oil, it will also create American jobs.

The facts show the dramatic impact that such a national energy tax would have on the 9th District. We have more than 22,000 farms, covering more than 6.4 million acres of land. Agriculture is a bull's-eye industry for an energy tax because it is energy-intensive.  Whether it's the fuel in the tractor, the fertilizer for the crops, or the delivery of food to the grocery store, agriculture uses a great deal of energy throughout production. An analysis by the Missouri Public Utility Alliance estimates that the House-passed cap-and-tax plan for carbon emissions could increase the average electric rate in Missouri by 10 percent in 2015 compared to 2005. In 2020, the increase could be 17 percent and by 2030, rates could be 82 percent higher.

With hard-working families in my district and across the country trying to make ends meet during these tough economic times, this is certainly not the time to be imposing new energy taxes on everything from gasoline to electricity. But what is even more frustrating is that there are those who will stop at nothing to get this tax passed and have chosen to use the oil disaster in the Gulf to try and pursue their agenda.

CONTACT US: As always, for those of you with Internet access, I encourage you to visit my website <http://luetkemeyer.house.gov/> . For those without access to the Internet, I encourage you to call my offices in Columbia (573-886-8929), Washington, Mo. (636-239-2276), or Hannibal (573-231-1012) with your questions and concerns. If you want even greater access to what I am working on, please visit my YouTube site
 http://www.youtube.com/user/BLuetkemeyer>  and my Facebook page <http://www.facebook.com/people/Blaine-Luetkemeyer/1358702716> .