For Immediate Release
Friday
May 22, 2009
Contact Information:
Steve Higley 202-552-8455
NPRA: Waxman-Markey Bill Is an 'Abject Policy Failure'
“Such policies, with the back of a hand, cast aside millions of hard-working Americans with the simple message that they and their livelihoods are neither wanted nor needed. Such policies fail consumers by effectively limiting individual preference and choice for vehicle and fuel type.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – NPRA, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, which represents more than 450 businesses, including virtually all U.S. refiners and petrochemical manufacturers, today sharply criticized H.R. 2454, the “American Clean Energy and Security Act,” which the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed late last evening by a 33-25 margin.
“While this may appear, in the short-term, to be a monumental political success, ultimately it represents nothing more than an abject policy failure,” NPRA President Charles T. Drevna said. “The whole notion of capping carbon dioxide emissions, issuing allowances disproportionately to favored industries, and hoping that the false promise of ‘green jobs’ could gloss over the current and real jobs that will be lost should H.R. 2454 become law belies the complexity of fairly balancing energy and environmental policy. The role of the federal government is not to choose winners and losers in the business sector. Such policies, with the back of a hand, cast aside millions of hard-working Americans with the simple message that they and their livelihoods are neither wanted nor needed. Such policies fail consumers by effectively limiting individual preference and choice for vehicle and fuel type.
“Ultimately at stake are American energy security and the ability of our home-grown energy providers to compete in global markets, as we must. Imports of refined products, not simply crude, could actually increase under H.R. 2454, thus impeding national energy security. American refiners, who already face stiff foreign competition in the fuels markets, would be severely disadvantaged with higher compliance costs under the Waxman-Markey scheme. Foreign refiners, whose facility emissions are obviously not addressed in H.R. 2454 and whose operating costs are much lower, will gain a distinct advantage over American businesses in the marketplace.
“By ceding our stake in the markets to foreign enterprises in locations with environmental standards hardly as stringent as those that already exist in the United States, the proponents of this legislation could inadvertently be responsible for increased global greenhouse gas emissions.”
# # #
NPRA members include more than 450 companies, including virtually all American refiners and petrochemical manufacturers. Our members supply consumers with a wide variety of products and services used daily in their homes and businesses. These products include gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, jet fuel, lubricants and the chemicals that serve as “building blocks” in making everything from plastics to clothing to medicine to computers.