Rep. Rick Boucher has stabbed the working people of Southwest Virginia in the back by his vote for H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The act provides for a “cap and trade” program that is no more than a huge tax on all forms of energy that will be eventually paid by the public, as all taxes are.
Boucher’s vote supported a bill that will cost Southwest Virginia dearly. The cost of electricity, home heating, gasoline, and virtually all necessities will skyrocket for working people throughout Boucher’s district because of the massive taxes in the bill. Estimates from reputable sources, like MIT, put the increase at $3,900 per family per year.
Moreover, thousands of jobs in coal and related industries will be lost, in exchange for “pie in the sky” green jobs promised by the Obama administration that may never materialize. Some of us remember the promises of President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s that the expensive new Energy Department would “end our dependence on foreign oil” with “new energy sources” that would provide thousands of jobs. Well, we actually increased our dependence on foreign oil, and where are new energy sources and the jobs? President Obama’s promises sound much the same.
Why would Boucher betray the people in his district? The only logical answer is that he has bought into the controversial issues of “global warming” or “climate change” that the bill purports to solve. It seems that he is willing to risk the economic well-being of working folks in his district on a risky solution to an unproven problem.
Boucher has apparently become a Washington insider and forgotten the working people of Southwest Virginia. Maybe it’s time we were represented by someone that remembers who elected him.
William R. Watts
Rural Retreat, Va.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement