Climate change bill debated in House today

Watch/listen to the House debate on the American Clean Energy & Security Act on C-SPAN

The House debates the American Clean Energy & Security Act, Pres. Obama's climate change legislation. The bill centers on a renewable electicity standard, encouraging the use of renewable energy, and a cap-and-trade policy, creating financial incentives to limit carbon emissions.

Congress continues to look for the right solution

Here are two interesting article from the most recent news cycle.

The first covers some of the changes to current climate change legislation and why Congress doesn't think it will be able to pass legislation that meets President Obama's goals for renewable energy.

Here's another article with details of a climate change plan crafted by Republicans in Congress.

Climate change bill passes House committee

Here are some more updates and opinions on the Waxman-Markey climate change bill.

House panel advances global warming bill — Associated Press

Climate change bill addresses job losses — The Heritage Foundation

Climate change legislation moving through Congress

The Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill has received plenty of headlines in recent weeks. Climate change legislation is a popular topic for journalists and bloggers, so we've decided to share links to what is being written.

For the record, electric cooperatives are opposed to the bill. As it is currently written, the Waxman-Markey bill would cause the monthly electric bill of co-op members across the country to jump up significantly, and that is something co-ops cannot and will not support.

Co-ops absolutely support Congress in its efforts to address climate change, but we are working to make sure any legislation that is passed does so without causing the cost of electricity to become unaffordable. Earlier this month, more than 3,000 co-op employees from 48 states converged on Washington D.C. to meet with their respective representatives. The Alabama contingent had more than 120 people that met with all seven congressmen as well as Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby.

Look for continued updates as new articles appear on the internet. Here are a few we found today (some relating directly to the Waxman-Markey bill, and others concerning climate change and energy policy in general):

Cap-and-Trade Debate Drags On in House Energy Committee — The Washington Post

U.S. Lawmakers reject nuclear in renewable power goals — Reuters

Thinking about cap and trade — The Atlantic magazine

Climate Bill: Plenty of Sound and Fury in Waxman-Markey Hearings — Wall Street Journal blog

The Waxman-Markey Global Warming Tax — The Heritage Foundation

Energy Secreatry says coal, nuclear are here to stay — for now

One of the Obama Administration's top energy advisors said recently that coal and nuclear technology will remain a key part in U.S. energy production for at least the rest of this century.

That's pretty big news from a major player, considering all of the talk out of Washington, D.C., in recent months.

If you have not had a chance to check out the Our Energy, Our Future campaign website, here is a link. The idea behind the movement is to make sure your elected officials are asking the important questions that must be answered in the energy crisis/climate change debate.

Co-ops are not opposed to expanding renewable energy sources, but we have to make sure those decisions are being made with a full understanding of the issues. The biggest issue for co-ops is the cost. Unrealistic mandates for production and use could cause prices to skyrocket for consumers, and that is something co-ops do not want to see happen.

Wednesday lunchtime update

The number of members without power is going down, but there is still a lot of work to do. As of noon Wednesday, approximately 520 members were without power. Most of those are in the southwest portion of Cullman County and southeast portion of Winston County, surrounding Smith Lake.

The line crews are blanketing that area, while a few crews are located in other areas of the service territory finishing up other repairs and outages.

All of the biggest outages have been dealt with (one problem = hundreds without power). It's almost to the point where each repair that is made leads to one member having their service restored. We're not quite there yet, but right now, every repair means several streets or a group of houses has power again.

With a little luck, we could have everyone back on before the end of the day.

Tuesday lunchtime update

Outages are down to 2,700 remaining, still concentrated in the southwest service territory, but hundreds scattered all over.