Senate Proceeding on Oct 29th, 2009 :: 2:15:15 to 2:26:55
Total video length: 6 hours 41 minutes Stream Tools: Stream Overview | Edit Time

Note: MetaVid video transcripts may contain inaccuracies, help us build a more perfect archive

Download OptionsEmbed Video

Views:29 Duration: 0:11:40 Discussion

Previous speech:

Next speech:

2:15:15 to 2:26:55( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Max Baucus

2:15:17 to 2:15:37( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: quorum call: mrs. hutchison the presiding officer: the mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. hutchison: thank you. mr. president, i rise today to raise serious concerns with the cap-and-trade legislation which is currently in hearings in the

2:15:38 to 2:16:01( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: senate committee on environment and public works. the committee is holding its third hearing today on the bill that would presumably be coming to the floor of the united one of the panels today is going to focus on the impact on transportation of the cap-antrade bill. mr. president, i think members

2:16:02 to 2:16:23( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: deserve to know the real cost and effects this bill is going to have on transportation, and that's what i would like to talk about today. last wee senator bond and i unveiled a report which analyzed the fuel costs implications from the house bill its way through the house.

2:16:24 to 2:16:44( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: our report forecasted a a $3.6 trillion gas tax on the american economy for the life of the program, which is 2015-2050 h -- 2050. at this time of uncertainty, 15 million people are out of work, and just about every american is cutting back

2:16:45 to 2:17:06( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: on spendg. do we really want to put on energy and increase energy costs for families and small businesses at a time like this? i think the answer is obvious. the worst thing that we could do to our struggling economy is to overburden it with new taxes and more regulation.

2:17:07 to 2:17:29( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: but that's exactly what the cap-and-trade bill is doing, and that's exactly what is going through congress right now. this past weekend, we began to see what is in the senate bill that is being proposed. it is even more stringent than the house bill. the legislation on the senate

2:17:30 to 2:17:50( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: side would impose a huge tax on business and levy a massive economic burden on all americans. for most americans, gasoline is a mandatory expense and raising the cost of it of course is going to strain working families, small businesses, farmers, ranchers, and our whole economy.

2:17:51 to 2:18:12( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: last year when consumers experienced $4 gasolinend $5 diesel, it caused enormous hardships for americans. fortunately, those fuel prices were temporary. but under cap-and-trade, those high prices will be permanent, at least until 2050.

2:18:13 to 2:18:33( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: high pact our transportation expenses we're actually hit twice because the gas tax raises the price of every good and every service, groceries, clothes, that consumers must purchase in order to live. energy costs are among our

2:18:34 to 2:18:54( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: businesses' top operational expenses. companie face a variety of energy expens ranging from heating and cooling to powering equipment and lighting. in order for businesses to withstand this heavier tax burden and to remain viable, they will be forced to pass the fuel costs on to consumers

2:18:55 to 2:19:17( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: through higher prices. several indusies will be more severely penalized by the gas tax than others. let's take trucking. the american trucking industry is a major target of the cap-and-trade gas tax. in 2007, 1.7 million drivers of tractor-trailers logged

2:19:18 to 2:19:38( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: 145 billion vehicle miles, consuming 28.5 billion gallons of fuel. that equates to an annual fuel cost per vehicle of $34,560. that number will skyrocket under this cap-and-trade proposal that

2:19:39 to 2:19:59( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: is going through congress. and when you consider that the average self-employed truck driver earns only $43,000 per year in net revenue, the gas tax represents an enormous new tax on working middle-class truckers. of course, truckers will not suffer those higher gas taxes

2:20:00 to 2:20:20( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: alone. their additional costs will be shared by every consumer in the increased price of everything they transport. at some point, nearly everything bought or sold must be shipped to a retailer. so the sweeping effects of the gas tax on every consumer, every person, every business,

2:20:21 to 2:20:41( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: certainly the trucking industry but every other business will harm our entire economy. the pain doesn't stop with trucking. our nation's farmers and ranchers who are tasked with producing high-quality goods for much of the world will be

2:20:42 to 2:21:03( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: irreparably harmed under the house's $2 trillion tax on gasoline and $1.3 trillion tax on diesel fuel. gas and diesel fuel powered equipment ranging from tractor-trailers to combines to fertilizing systems are the operational foundation of america's farms and ranches. every extra penny they pay will

2:21:04 to 2:21:24( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: be seen in the cost of goods and certainly the cost of food. under the climate change legislation, they will face face $550 million in higher fuel costs inhe year 2020. despite all of this pain that we're going to see on our truckers, o

2:21:25 to 2:21:45( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: on every business, what good will it do? i mean, if there is a good side to this, let's look at it. it's environment, but even the u.s. environmental protection agency administrator admits that unless china and india impose similar

2:21:46 to 2:22:07( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: draconian taxes and regulations, there will be no effect on world temperatures. so what is the purpose of this increase in tax, increase in cost that every american will bear? well, there is no improvement because it is certainly common

2:22:08 to 2:22:30( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: sense to know that if we do this unilaterally in the united states and we put this tax on exploration companies that are trying to produce more energy for our economy at a cheaper price and environmentally safely, that if others around the world don't do it, if they

2:22:31 to 2:22:52( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: don't put more cs and more regulations and they are spewing into the world much heavier carbon emissions than the united states does now, and if they don't change and we do, it will still come to our country so there will not be any effect on the global environment.

2:22:53 to 2:23:13( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: under the bills that are going through today, trillion figures have been discussed nonchalantly in washington that it seems their shock value. americans must know that that $3.6 trillion in gas taxes is a real number and it's going

2:23:14 to 2:23:37( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: to have a real effect on every american. we can improve the environment and we can improve the economy. one of the things that is not being discussed, as we are talking about putting more taxes on the industries that produce energy, the bread and butter energy of

2:23:38 to 2:23:58( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: isn't discussed is nuclear power. nuclear power has been shown timend again where it is in place that it is inexpensive, that it is efficient, and it is environmentally safe. there is no carbon emission from a nuclear power plant.

2:23:59 to 2:24:20( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: so why does the house bill not even address nuclear? why are we not talking in this administration about nuclear power which can be clean energy, which can be efficient energy, which has been proven to also have much fewer consequences than was once thought because the amount of nuclear waste has

2:24:21 to 2:24:41( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: now been loweredo a huge extent and can be safely kept, and if we continue we'll probably be able to reuse the nuclear waste and put it back into more nuclear power. why aren't we pursuing nuclear instead of just putting more

2:24:42 to 2:25:02( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: taxes and more regulations on the bread and butter energy that is produced in our country? mr. president, we need to reject the cap-and-trade bills that are going through congress right now. we need to focus on environmental policies that will make a difference in our environment, that might make a

2:25:03 to 2:25:23( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: difference in our global environment, but certainly unilateral regulations and taxes just on america has been absolutely proven not to make a difference in the global economy if no other country adopts these draconian measures, which they have all said they're not going to do.

2:25:24 to 2:25:45( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: so while i do stand ready to support clean energy, technology, nuclear power, i could not possibly support a bill that is going to wreck our economy in a very precarious time, which will send jobs away from america at a time when we

2:25:46 to 2:26:08( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: know that we need to increase jobs in america. it will be sendingmerican jobs overseas where it is easier to do business and where regulation is more stable. mr. president, what are we doing? what are we doing talking about more taxes and more regulations

2:26:09 to 2:26:30( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: that will not have an impact on the global environment? i hope that as these bills are vetted in committee that we will stop and say let's do something rational. let's promote clean energy. let's promote nuclear power. let's don't hold back those who

2:26:31 to 2:26:53( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: would be willing to make that investment and take that chance. but, mr. president, we should not pass cap-and-trade, which will tax and regulate our energy industry, and it will not hp the environment. that is a lose-lose proposition. i hope that congress and the

2:26:54 to 2:26:55( Edit History Discussion )

Max Baucus: that this is the wrong way and