What's New

National poll shows a significant majority of Americans favor affordable solution to climate change

More than three-fourths of Americans agree that Congress should know how much climate legislation is going to cost consumers if they approve new energy policy. 

That was one of several findings according to a national poll in April commissioned by the Arlington, Virg.-based National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.  

According to the study, Americans expect that their elected representatives will know — and will tell them — how much their electric bills will increase in addressing concerns about climate change.

“Electric cooperatives are working hard to help Congress develop simple, affordable, flexible and effective climate change legislation,” said Glenn English, CEO, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. “We are seeking a commonsense approach to climate change that minimizes costs and ensures that safe and reliable electric power remains affordable for everyone.

“Family budgets are already strained by rising energy costs, and climate change legislation that does not take consumer costs into account will place significant burdens on households from coast to coast,” English said. 

Public policy will change to achieve reductions in carbon dioxide emissions — the heart of any climate change policy — from factories, power plants and vehicles are inevitable, English said. “The question isn’t if they will happen, but how.”

In mid-April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it was ready to use the federal Clean Air Act to limit emissions of carbon dioxide, along with five other greenhouse gases blamed for contributing to global warming.  However, the agency said it hoped Congress would adopt a legislative solution instead. 

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, a draft measure passed by the U.S. House June 26, 2009, would employ a market-based system of tradable federal permits, known as emissions allowances, to cut greenhouse gases. This cap-and-trade system would set a specific limit on carbon dioxide emissions from sources like power plants, factories and refineries, and require those sources to account for all emissions with allowances. 

Under the plan emissions allowances would be sold at auction to generate a massive amount of federal revenue, as suggested in President Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget.

“Electric co-ops, and Americans in general, are highly skeptical of schemes that will allow speculators to bid up the price of emissions allowances,” English said. “That would put electric bills in the hands of Wall Street.”

The danger of such a system isn’t lost on consumers: 77 percent of those polled were concerned that a cap-and-trade auction would allow financiers and multinational energy companies to control the price consumers pay for electricity. Fifty-eight percent agree that at a time when the U.S. economy is in trouble, climate change legislation must keep electric bills affordable by focusing only on meeting climate change requirements — not generating federal revenue for other purposes.

“Consumers across the country have spoken, and it is clear that electric cooperatives just can’t sit this one out,” English said. “As champions for members’ best interests, electric co-ops are dedicated to getting the message through to Congress: any regulations on carbon dioxide emissions must come through simple, affordable and flexible legislation that can be sustained over the decades needed to make a difference.”