Sierra Club in
Aug 26 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News -
Mike Dennison Billings Gazette,
A
Paul Shively, the Sierra Club's
senior regional representative in
"In light of the
unprecedented amount of science that points to the urgency of addressing global
warming, we are, quite frankly, stunned you would distribute such a message
under the guise of concern over customers' potential rate increases," he
said.
Rowe's letter was included in
August bills sent to NorthWestern's 650,000 customers
in
It said the cap-and-trade bill
passed in June by the U.S. House could increase household power bills of NorthWestern customers by $225 a year.
On Tuesday, Rowe replied to the
Sierra Club letter, saying NorthWestern is not
opposed to the cap-and-trade bill but rather trying to "identify ways to
lower the customer impact of legislation."
The cap-and-trade bill seeks to
limit greenhouse gases by creating a national cap and then granting credits or
allowances to industries that emit these gases.
The industries must either reduce
their emissions or buy more allowances.
On its Web site, the company
suggests changes to the bill, such as increasing the amount of allowances that
would be granted to NorthWestern, a utility that gets
a substantial amount of its power from coal-fired plants.
Burning coal creates large
amounts of carbon-dioxide, a major greenhouse gas.
Rowe said forcing NorthWestern to spend money on more allowances would divert
money away from things like new power lines, which are needed to transport
power from new green-energy projects.
"I have a strong concern
that being required to purchase allowances will crowd out the ability to invest
in this critical infrastructure, which will not further progress on climate or
other environmental issues in our region, but rather would constitute an
economic dead-weight loss," he wrote.
He also said NorthWestern's
message is inaccurate, because other analyses have shown the customer impact to
be less than predicted by NorthWestern, such as the
Environmental Protection Agency's estimate of $80 to $111 a year per household.
"We hope you will agree this
is a small cost for saving the planet from the pending implications of global
warming,"
The company has said its analysis
was based on a number of assumptions, and that it chose a relatively
conservative estimate for the cost of the cap-and-trade bill's tax on carbon
emissions.
Return to Environmental Update
Return to Homepage
Roubidoux
True tales of the Huckleberry Finn type adventures of a boy who journeys from
delinquency in California to Southern culture in the Missouri Ozarks. Although told
through the eyes of a twelve year old who never grows old, much of the real life
adventure is emotionally timeless with appeal to all ages. Brutally honest at
times but never off colored.
A sample from Roubidoux may be read here.
The book may be ordered here.
Do you know that your body is naturally acidic which makes you susceptible to all manner of unhealthy conditions and illnesses? By making your body alkaline instead of acidic you mitigate these potential health problems. One way of doing this is to drink alkaline water. The above machine is called the "Athena" and makes tap water into pure, clean alkaline water. It's rather expensive, but it's the best in the world. Isn't your health worth it? Click here to learn more and order it.
