Cap and trade plagues Peterson
U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson was put on the hot seat last week when he held a health care forum in Bemidji. Nearly 400 people packed a large hall at the Hampton Inn & Suites for nearly three hours. But it wasn’t Democrat-sponsored health care reform bills that got Peterson, DFL-7th District, in the most trouble — it was the U.S, House Agriculture Committee chairman’s vote for the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the bill most known for its cap-and-trade provisions for controlling carbon emissions.
"I am thoroughly disappointed with you and your cap and trade," a woman from Thief River Falls pointed at Peterson. "You can tell everybody in here that it didn’t go anywhere anyway, but I’m still disappointed in your vote because you don’t believe in global warming and yet you turn around and vote for something like that that is going to cost everybody something because you got something."
Peterson, to his credit, held out on the ACES bill to gain concessions for agriculture as a carbon-producing industry. No concessions, no vote. He got what he asked for, so he voted in support of the bill.
"So you think I should just be irresponsible and let the EPA come out here and run our people out of business?" he returned tothe lady from Thief River. That’s the alternative." "No it isn’t," she said.As she continued on, Peterson shouted over her, "The Supreme Court of the land has decided that global warming or greenhouse gases are a problem. The only way the Supreme Court of the land can be overturned is by act of Congress, and that’s the bill we’re working on.And to be part of the process, I did what I did — it’s not a final deal, we’ve still got a ways to go — but the alternative is to have the Clean Air Act come out here and tell farmers what they can plant and what they can’t.That’s where we’re heading."
"I’m sorry," said the woman. "I don’t believe anything you tell me."
’i've always voted for you because you’re a Blue Dog Democrat," said another woman, a Bemidji homemaker, referring to the House Blue Dogs, a group of about 40 conservative Democrats that Peterson helped found. "But after the cap and trade, I will not vote you again." That came with a round of applause and shouts."You caved … that was a bad bill."
Another man echoed those thoughts, saying he voted for Peterson as a Blue Dog Democrat,but never again.
After taking repeated beatings, Peterson diverted from the health care forum to take five minutes to explain his ACES vote.
"This cap and trade thing keeps coming up,"Peterson said,adding that he’d received heat on the issue at an earlier forum at Willmar. "First of all, there is a court case that happened out on the East Coast by a federal judge that found that greenhouse gas is an endangerment to public health. This was a case that was decided by a federal judge. It was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 and was upheld in a 5-4 decision. So the EPA is right now working on regulating greenhouse gases on tailpipe emissions of cars under the Clean Air Act, which is what this case required them to do.
"There are eight other lawsuits pending against the EPA to get them to start regulating agriculture, regulating cows, regulating all kinds of kinds of other stuff — I’m serious — because cow flatulence is one of the big problems.To the farm groups, I did say I was not for this bill. … I had the farm groups come to me, including the Farm Bureau, the corn growers, all of the farm groups came to me and said that you’ve got to intervene on this bill and get some provisions inthere so that we’ve got agriculture in a position that we can live with this.
"So I laid down a bunch of criteria and we negotiated for three-four weeks, My staff said there is no way in the world the Energy and Commece Comittee was going to give me what I asked for, and what happened was the Tuesday before the vote they came in and gave me everything I asked for. Agriculture is exempt from the cap-and-trade bill completely, the only industry that is. The EPA will not regulate agriculture, or anything to do with us in this cap and trade. I got an extra allowance for the REAs so that they’re going to be offset for any increase in costs. Ethanol was going to be put out of business because of this … land use thing that the EPA was trying to do.
"So when they gave me everything, I was kind of put in a position of, well, now i’m going to lie and not hold up to my word and I’m not going to support this. So I supported the bill. I’ve said and I’ll say it again that if this [the original bill] was going to become law, I would have voted against it. It’s still got a lot of problems.Now, if it goes anyplace in the Senate, it’ll come back to conference committee and because of the work I did, I’ll be on the conference committee and I will try to work to bring some of this stuff out."
The House passed the bill and it’s now in the Senate, where Peterson says "it’s not going any place, and you probably won’t see this thing in this session of Congress."
"You got it out of the House," a shout came from the crowd.
"I did, but I got a lot back for it …" Peterson said before more interuptions from the crowd. "You can question my judgment but the point is that if I’d had given in, it’s easier politically to do nothing.And then when you guys have the EPA come on your farm and tell you how to farm, then I’ve been out of office and won’t have to worry about it."
He cited a recent Wall Street Journal poll that found 46 percent of Americans strongly support the Waxman-Markey bill on climate change and 27 percent somewhat support it and only 19 percent oppose it."That’s the other thing we’re up against," Peterson said. "I’m skeptical about this."
If Peterson is right, and the climate change bill languishes in the Senate, this too may pass. But if the issue is kept alive, and the bill returns to conference comittee about this time next year, the issue could be one of the most serious for Peterson to counter in a re-election bid. There hasn’t been much that sticks to the conservative Democrat, and he’s won lately with 60-plus percent with token opposition. Based on the reaction at the health care forum in Bemidji, it appears Peterson has a lot more explaining to do about his support of the bill.
And the Republicans may have found something on which to hang their hat …
I was there that day and witnessed how thick the atmosphere was with ignorance, hypocracy and yes, even racism. A veterans officials bragged about how great the VA medical plan is but then yelled about how the government can’t be trusted to run anything. Even when Rep. Peterson votes in their best interest(cap and trade), they don’t even understand the issue enough to know it. Too many there do not educate themselves about the issues. They get their information from rumor or the Faux Noise channel which is in fact not a news service. They have no clue that many bills in congress have several pieces attached that the congressperson has to many times prioritize what is most important to their constituants. In this case, Rep. Peterson was voting for his district based on all the other smaller issues(but not less important) addressed in the bill which has a greater and direct effect to his constituants. News flash: Sometimes legislators vote on bills based on fact and what is best for their people, even when they(the constituants) do not know it themsleves. Clearly we live in an area of the state where people vote against their own best interest due to lack of education or listening to rumors or using false logic based on something that Faux news tell them.
Amen Jeff! What shall we do to protect our future from these ignorant people? Am I the only one afraid to have kids because this is the crazy world they will come into?
PC, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m afraid to have kids. If anything, I believe the most exciting times of human history are ahead of us. I would just call this growing pains. Just like in 1964 when the civil rights bill was passed, the most ignorant of us then thought the world was coming to an end. Well it did not. Just like the congress did what was right then in the face of what seemed like insurmountable ignorance and hatred, we must pray that it happens again this time and the health care reform will pass. On Leno one night during his Jaywalking feature, he asked a woman “who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania ave?” the woman thought for a second but had no clue. Jay then asked “who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” The womans face lit up and she said “oh! spongebob!! Anyway, what we can do about people like this is to keep active and vote for candidates who support adequate funding for education of all levels.