From the House Republican Energy and Commerce Committee:
U.S. Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Fred Upton, ranking member of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee, today asked committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, R-Mass., for the “specific and final language on emissions permit allocations.”
In response to a Republican request, Democrats have set Friday for a further hearing on the Waxman-Markey global warming legislation.
“It is our intention to use the opportunity you are providing for us this Friday to carefully examine the one element of the legislation that has so far escaped examination in 38 hearings stretching over 40 days – its cost – by calling witnesses who can professionally examine this element just as soon as we are able to provide them the specific and final language on emissions permit allocations that you plan on marking up in a business meeting,” the lawmakers said.
“As you recall from the hearing on Friday, former Vice President Gore was given repeated opportunities to discuss the true cost of the Waxman-Markey bill; the only answer he could come up with was to suggest that, fourteen years ago, corporate polluters were like Bernice Madoff,” they added. “Clearly, the world’s leading spokesman for the cause of stopping global warming has no information about the true cost of your bill.”
Barton and Upton said they would provide a list of witnesses to the committee “as soon as we can confirm that we will have specific legislative language on the emission permit allocations tomorrow.”