Doin' Work

One of the true pleasures of my move to Utah has been the opportunity to meet this wonderful gentleman.

In his poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost paints the perfect picture of today’s debate on America’s energy future. Here, Frost describes two paths leading in two different directions, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Much like the subject of Frost’s poem, America today finds itself at a crossroads. There are two diverging paths we can choose with regard to this nation’s energy policy. The road we ultimately choose will indeed make all the difference.

I have had the extreme pleasure of speaking with the Congressman a couple of times and I can not begin to express how impressed I am by his gentle manner and his keen intellect. He reminds me of a dear friend back in the Minnesota Legislature. Another way where Congressman Bishop reminds me of that dear friend is his grasp of energy policy.

Despite growing job losses, some in Washington, D.C. have decided a recession is the ideal time to impose a massive new cap and trade energy scheme. Cap and trade is Washington-lingo where the federal government imposes a federal ceiling on carbon emissions and then sets up a complicated market for entities to buy and sell the right to emit carbon at levels under the cap.

Going down this road leads to a regressive national energy tax that intentionally increases energy prices on every American consumer, restricts economic growth, and aims to dictate and regulate Americans into a new “green” energy future. To put this in more concrete terms, some studies indicate the Democrats cap and trade proposal will raise electricity prices by 90% and gasoline prices by 74%. Now for some folks, energy price hikes of this nature may be more of an inconvenience than a hardship, but for low-income families already spending one out every five dollars on energy bills, these increases will have a devastating impact on already struggling family finances.

Emphasis mine. Now my friend Representative Beard and I have had more than a few discussions about using the "R" word when discussing the Democrats inclination to raise the so-called "sin" taxes but in this case Congressman Bishop is correct. Cap and Trade will have a devastating impact on the people that the Democrats claim they care the most about - the poor and the elderly. Anyone who is already dealing with a tight budget will have to make the life and death choice between food and heat their home when it is 20 below zero and cooling in it when the temperature is over 100 degrees with 95% humidity!

However (and this is what I love the most about Congressman Bishop) the critique is not the only thing that Congressman Bishop brings to the table - he also highlights some of the solutions that the "party of no" has brought forward that the "Democratic" leadership of the House has said no hearings to.

Representing just one of the thousand-plus bills the so-called “Party of No” has introduced so far this Congress, the Congressional Western Caucus and the Republican Study Committee recently introduced the American Energy Innovation Act (H.R. 2300). This bill provides a competing energy vision for the country; one we believe is shared by the majority of the American people.

Our proposal provides a comprehensive, forward-thinking approach to how we address today’s energy and job creation needs, and one that goes in an entirely different direction than the Democrat’s approach. The path we believe we should travel looks to innovation, conservation, and production as the means to greater economic prosperity, a cleaner environment, real job creation and realistic environmental achievements in the near future.

This alternate energy vision is premised on the idea that tax increases never lead to job creation and that arbitrary government mandates only stifle American ingenuity. It is based on historical evidence that progress in the environmental arena follows economic prosperity, not the other way around.

Congressman Bishop has said before, that solutions are needed - that the Republican Party can not just be about "no" and they can not just be about attacking their opponents (gee now where have I heard THAT before????)...they have to provide solutions. The American Energy Innovation Act is an option for a solution that you will never hear about from the "traditional" media sources which is one reason why the internet has taken off as a source of information. The Republican Party needs to get on the solutions train fast. The American people want answers - they want SHARED sacrifices - not sacrifice for the voters but none for the politicians.

The voters are willing - is DC?