WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, delivered the following statement at Wednesday’s committee hearing on "Competitiveness and Climate Policy: Avoiding Leakage of Jobs and Emissions."
"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate the opportunity to have another dialog today about global warming. In a global economy where any producer is just an airplane ride away from any customer and boundaries don’t seem to matter, the United States does need a competitive edge. Our edge is individual creativity, freedom, an educated, dedicated labor force, and an energy policy based until now on free markets and supply and demand.
"Unfortunately, we an unemployment rate that’s going up, not down, and just hit 8.1 percent. And it appears there is a Congressional majority determined to adopt a carbon cap-and-trade policy that is absolutely the worst thing we could be doing right now to protect the jobs we still have in our economy.
"We can debate the ins and outs all we want. But if you really want to stop job leakage, don’t do camp and trade. It’s that simple. We cannot escape the unassailable truth that if you’re trying to cap carbon, which is one of the most ubiquitous elements in the world, it’s going to put a price on it and the price is going to go up while the jobs are going to go down.
"Manufacturers compete globally and the cost of energy already has a bearing on whether we manufacture or create in the United States or in China or Mexico or Brazil. If consumers can just as easily import steel, concrete, and other energy-intensive goods from our competitors, then American producers won’t be able to add the cost of greenhouse gas permits to their bills without losing that competitive edge.
"Everyone knows what happens next. Declining revenues push companies to close facilities in the United States and cut American jobs. I have a factory in my district, in my small hometown of Ennis, Texas, with about 15,000 people. They announced two weeks ago they’re closing the factory and moving it to China. They make mattress box springs. They’ve been doing it for 60 years in Ennis, but sometime next they’re going to start doing in somewhere in China. We are naïve to think that China and India and other emerging, industrialized countries will sacrifice their own growing economies and their own jobs in response to a theory that has yet to be proven. It just won’t work.
"So I look forward to this bearing. I know most of the witnesses on a personal basis. They’re all good people and I’m sure we’re going to have a good dialog. With that I yield back."
