The Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill and your Electric Bill

The Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill alias H.R. 2454 alias ACES alias the American Clean Energy and Security Act is now 1400 pages long. The cap-and-trade provision will not raise your electric bill because the money collected from coal fired power plants is given back to retail customers. The provision requiring 14% "renewable" energy will raise the electric company's cost by maybe 5%, not the 20% that the coal industry claims. "Renewable" sources of electricity (wind, solar and geothermal) are the most expensive. Most of our electricity is from coal. Nuclear power is the cheapest, safest and makes less CO2 than solar or wind or geothermal per kilowatt hour. Spent nuclear fuel is recyclable. In operation, only fossil fuels, coal and petroleum, make CO2. Read: "Power to Save the World; The Truth About Nuclear Energy" by Gwyneth Cravens, 2007. This is a truthful book about nuclear power. Other books may be coal company propaganda.

There are other provisions of H.R.2454 that would waste your money, requiring $40 light bulbs and appliances that save energy by not getting the job done. Saving energy is irrelevant to fighting global warming because waste heat is a microscopic fraction of the Earth's heat budget. The only action that counts is reducing greenhouse gasses. Venus's 800 degree temperature is caused by CO2. Without greenhouse gasses, heat dissipates into space. Greenhouse gasses control heat accumulation on Earth.

I favor a 1 page bill scheduling the conversion from coal to nuclear electricity.

This post is a letter I wrote to the editor of the Quad City Times.