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The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

On Climate: Kerry-Lieberman a "Bonanza of Corporate Giveaways"

PETER BARNES
Co-author of Climate
Solutions: A Citizen's Guide
, Barnes said today: "For months
essential climate legislation has been delayed while Senators John Kerry
(D-Mass.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) cut deals with lobbyists. Now
the results are out: a mind-boggling bonanza of giveaways for corporate
polluters and every energy industry except renewables.

WASHINGTON

PETER BARNES
Co-author of Climate
Solutions: A Citizen's Guide
, Barnes said today: "For months
essential climate legislation has been delayed while Senators John Kerry
(D-Mass.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) cut deals with lobbyists. Now
the results are out: a mind-boggling bonanza of giveaways for corporate
polluters and every energy industry except renewables.

"Fortunately, there is an alternative: the bi-partisan CLEAR Act
co-sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins
(R-Maine). This simple 39-page bill would set a declining economy-wide
cap on carbon suppliers, auction 100 percent of permits, and return 75
percent of the revenue to the American people to offset higher energy
prices. Polluters would get no giveaways, clean energy investment would
be spurred, and a majority of American families -- those who burn the
least fossil fuels -- would come out financially ahead.

"Senators should now compare these two approaches and choose the
best. And President Obama should do the same. Indeed, Obama should do
more than that: he should make passage of climate legislation similar to
the CLEAR Act a top priority for his administration -- just as he
promised to do in his campaign."

TYSON SLOCUM

Director of Public Citizen's
Energy Program, Slocum said today: "It's not accurate to call this a
climate bill. This is nuclear energy-promoting, oil
drilling-championing, coal mining-boosting legislation with a weak
carbon-pricing mechanism thrown in. What's worse, it guts the
Environmental Protection Agency's current authority to regulate
greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act." See full
statement
, which includes a breakdown of corporate subsidies.

A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.