"I am encouraged by Sen. Cantwell's bipartisan effort to advance a more sensible approach to greenhouse gas emission reductions. A great deal of work remains to find consensus on legislation, and ensure that both the economy and the environment are protected, but this bill is intellectually honest and moves the debate in the right direction. We need to keep all of our climate policy options on the table, and the CLEAR Act should certainly be one of the approaches we spend time considering in the coming months."
-- U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski
"On behalf of AARP and its 40 million members, we thank Senators Cantwell and Collins for their continued leadership on environmental and consumer issues and commend you for introducing the CLEAR Act. AARP believes that reducing harmful carbon dioxide is an important national goal, but it should not be achieved by imposing significant new burdens on American households. The CLEAR Act offers a simple, straightforward approach for reducing carbon emissions in a manner that will mitigate energy cost increases and minimize administrative costs for consumers."
-- David P. Sloane, Senior Vice President, Government Relations and Advocacy, AARP
“Public Citizen supports the Cantwell-Collins legislation as a needed fresh start to address climate change. Public Citizen understands that auctioning 100% of pollution allowances - rather than giving them away for free - and keeping Wall Street speculators out of carbon markets is the strongest path forward to hold polluters accountable, protect households and preserve the integrity of the emissions cap. Public Citizen understands that markets are needed to finance the research and deployment of clean technologies - and not to promote a trillion-dollar carbon gambling market. Solving climate change is simply too important to entrust to traders at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase.”
--Tyson Slocum, Director, Energy Program, Public Citizen
"On behalf of our five million members, MoveOn.org applauds Senators Maria Cantwell and Susan Collins' leadership for clean energy jobs. We can rebuild our struggling economy by making America the world's leader in 21st Century clean energy technologies like wind and solar. We're especially pleased that the CLEAR bill does not pull the plug on President Obama's efforts to enforce Clean Air Act limits on global warming pollution from coal plants."
-- Justin Ruben, Executive Director, MoveOn.org
“Finally, we have a climate policy for the people, not the polluters. This bill shows there is still hope that Americans can lead the way to real climate solutions. Senators Cantwell and Collins have demonstrated how smart policy can wrestle even the most difficult problems to the ground. This Cap & Rebate legislation is straightforward, effective, equitable, and needs no big new government bureaucracy. Best of all, it directly confronts the climate problem, while benefitting all Americans equally, not just special interests with the highest paid lobbyists.”
--Lee Wasserman, Director, Rockefeller Family Fund
“New York consumers save big under legislation introduced by Senators Maria Cantwell and Susan Collins. Unlike the current House or Senate climate bills, the Cantwell-Collins’ CLEAR Act auctions 100% of pollution permits and returns the vast majority of those revenues back to consumers in the form of a direct rebate. We applaud Senators Cantwell and Collins’ efforts and urge New York Senators Gillibrand and Schumer to ensure that her consumer protection plan is part of the final Senate climate change legislation.”
--Lauren Schuster, Environmental Campaign Coordinator, The New York Public Interest Research Group
“The mostly family-run, small business and non-utility heating fuels and home energy industry does not believe that a cap-and-trade system is a wise solution for reducing dependence on imported energy or fossil fuels, or for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. The New England Fuel Institute believes that in creating a new multi-trillion dollar emissions trading market where one had not previously existed, and by attempting to use free allowances and offsets in order to provide “relief” for the largest emitters and affected consumers, cap-and-trade chooses clear winners and losers. This includes big energy companies, such as big utilities, which directly compete with small energy companies like our members. It would also open the door to the same excessive speculation, risk-taking and abusive investment products and tactics in the emissions markets that helped create volatility and price spikes in the existing energy markets for heating oil, gasoline, propane and natural gas. In its “free allowances” and other give-away programs, it would unfairly burden rural energy consumers that rely on heating oil, propane and other non-utility provided fuels to heat their home and that use more motor fuels traveling from home to work than urban residents. We feel that Congress should explore other solutions that avoid picking “winners and losers” and that treat all consumers and businesses equitably. It is for this reason that we are looking at Senators Cantwell and Collins’ climate legislation with great interest. Congress should not put Wall Street in charge of American climate and energy policy.”
--Jim Collura, Vice President for Gov't Affairs, The New England Fuel Institute
"FCNL congratulates Senators Cantwell and Collins for introduction of bipartisan climate legislation that moves the debate in the right direction. The CLEAR Act contains a progressive carbon revenue return to the public that is equitable and engenders long-term political sustainability. By also addressing uncertain offsets, corporate giveaways, and market volatility and manipulation, Senators Cantwell and Collins develop approaches that should be the foundation for a final climate bill."
-- Devin Helfrich, Legislative Advocate, Friends Committee on National Legislation
"We applaud Senators Cantwell and Collins for their legislation. The Cantwell-Collins bill contains significant protection for consumers and an effective and efficient design for achieving emissions reductions. They have included provisions for real cost containment by including a price collar and established provisions to return auction revenues directly to consumers. Their legislation can be the basis for a broad-based, bipartisan effort to find a solution for cap-and-trade legislation that can garner the necessary support in the Senate and ultimately in a conference with the House."
--Rafe Pomerance, senior fellow and former president of Clean Air-Cool Planet and former chairman of the League of Conservation
“Friends of the Earth thanks Senators Cantwell and Collins for bringing a much needed alternative approach to the debate over climate and energy solutions in Congress. The framework that Senators Cantwell and Collins have crafted would minimize opportunities for Wall Street traders to gamble on our climate future. This is a key improvement over the flawed and risky cap-and-trade system that polluters and big banks successfully lobbied for in the House bill passed in June. While the approach in the CLEAR Act is a positive step forward, the bill still lacks the kind of ambitious limits on greenhouse gas emissions that the current science shows is needed and should be strengthened in order to bring carbon concentrations back below 350 parts per million. We look forward to continuing to work with Senators Cantwell and Collins and the Senate to craft effective climate legislation that will help us stave off the worst effects of climate change in a just and equitable fashion.”
-- Erich Pica, Friends of the Earth President
“Cap and rebate has always been the cleanest, most sensible way to take on this monumental task of scrubbing the carbon from our economy. Instead of turning the operation, and the money, over to corporations, every American gets a check every month--it's as if we each owned a share of the sky. And a 39-page bill--that's a good sign right there!”
--Quotes from Bill McKibben, author and director of 350.org.
“Senators Cantwell and Collins have introduced a bill to cut global warming pollution that is a welcome addition to the congressional debate.”
--Philip D. Radford, Executive Director, Greenpeace USA
"We welcome this bipartisan initiative, which is not only climate-friendly, but consumer-friendly."
--Frank O'Donnell, Clean Air Watch
“As a trader myself, I have seen firsthand how the powerful forces on Wall Street find a way around almost any regulation in pursuit of trading profits. Wall Street brought us the internet bubble, the housing bubble, the oil bubble, and now they would like to bring society a new bubble in carbon. Senator Cantwell’s CLEAR Act is so well constructed that it would make it very difficult for investment banks and speculators to game the future carbon market.”
--Michael Masters, Portfolio Manager, Masters Capital Management LLC
"An attractive feature of this bill is that it does not directly constrain manufacturing output like the economy-wide cap and trade legislation H.R. 2454 and S. 1733. If the resulting energy and compliance costs are not too high under this legislation, manufacturing may be able to grow its output and increase exports. US manufacturing needs to be able to grow its output to supply its markets or China, India and Brazil will."
-- Paul N. Cicio, President, Industrial Energy Consumers of America
“This is exactly the direction we need to be going in. Our atmosphere belongs to all of us, just like a national park. Any would-be polluter should pay for despoiling it. We need a 100 percent auction. And the proceeds should be returned to Americans as "dividends" in our commons, and as public investments in our future.”
--Robert Reich, University of California, Berkeley (for U.S. Secretary of Labor)
“Not only is Senator Cantwell’s bill admirably brief, it avoids some of the pitfalls that critics of cap-and-trade legislation have enumerated at length, such as windfall profits for emitters and special interest groups, the potential for fraudulent foreign offsets, and the creation of new poorly understood financial instruments.”
--Dr. Kenneth P. Green, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
“The CLEAR Act is the best way to reduce carbon emissions. It's simple, honest and effective. There are no giveaways or shell games. And middle class families are protected no matter how high carbon prices rise.”
--Peter Barnes, Tomales Bay Institute
“The cap-and-dividend approach ensures that hardworking American families benefit from our transition to secure and clean energy. It would help wean us off of fossil fuels, spur a wave of investment and job creation, and put cash in the pockets of the Americans that need it the most.”
--Michael A. Livermore, Executive Director, Institute for Policy Integrity, New York University School of Law
“Senators Cantwell and Collins' CLEAR Act provides concrete reductions in carbon emissions while courageously refusing to "take the bait" from the Nation's five largest banks to establish trading in the kind of derivatives that led to our present economic crisis. Other market designs allow a carbon "derivatives" market that would lead to encouraging price directional bets and huge profits for speculators, while at the same time almost certainly causing extreme self defeating price volatility for legitimate carbon hedgers Even if new regulatory tools should emerge from the present financial reform package (which is an open question), it would be very difficult to regulate carbon derivatives markets, and almost certainly lead to the kind of commodity bubbles we have experienced in the energy and agriculture sectors. That kind of price volatility whether in carbon, crude oil or wheat inevitably leads to financial suffering worldwide -- and would undercut, rather than help, the global warming fight. The big banks would be the only winners --once again. The "cap and refund" approach provides the strongest assurance of reducing climate changing carbon emissions while protecting the world economy from another disastrous derivatives market meltdown.
--Professor Michael Greenberger, University of Maryland School of Law
“If you're looking for a climate policy that combines simplicity, efficiency, and equity, the cap-and-dividend approach in the CLEAR Act is hard to beat.”
--Yoram Bauman, PhD, environmental economist at University of Washington
“We applaud Senator Cantwell’s work on climate change and to express our support for the CLEAR Act. The combination of auctions, revenue recycling, investments in green jobs, and the lack of international offsets in the CLEAR Act are all highly commendable. SACE supports these aspects of the CLEAR Act and looks forward to working with you to see these proposals adopted by Congress in the near future.”
--Stephen A. Smith, Executive Director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
“Senators Cantwell and Collins have really changed the discussion in the US Senate on how a carbon cap can reduce CO2 pollution and drive energy innovation. By auctioning the permits, avoiding wildly speculative carbon trading and derivatives, and protecting consumers from energy price increases, this tri-partisan climate bill can help bring the Senate together behind President Obama’s commitment in Copenhagen.”
--Michael Noble, Executive Director, Fresh Energy (Minnesota)
“Ultimately, the American public will only support a carbon bill that is simple, fair, and built to last for decades. The Cantwell-Collins bill provides precisely this framework. All polluters pay, no complicating ‘offsets’, and all Americans get real money in their pockets through a monthly carbon ‘dividend.’ This approach is vastly superior to the ‘cap and trade’ format now stalled in the U.S. Senate. Instead of complexity, we have clarity. Instead of economic uncertainty, we have economic gain guaranteed for the great majority of Americans. I commend Senators Cantwell and Collins for their leadership in introducing this bill.”
--Mike Tidwell, Executive Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
“The Montana Environmental Information Center supports legislation introduced today by Senators Maria Cantwell and Susan Collins because it is a clear, simple, and fair step forward on the path to a clean energy economy. The Cantwell-Collins cap and dividend approach puts money in the bank accounts of Montana families, instead of padding the pockets of corporate executives. It promotes energy and economic security on Main Street, not risky carbon trading on Wall Street. This legislation subsidizes investment in new and clean energy resources rather than subsidizing old and dirty fossil fuels. Montana has vast amounts of wind energy, and is making progress towards becoming a national leader in wind energy development. Cantwell and Collins’ bill helps move that progress forward. We commend Senators Cantwell and Collins for their strong leadership and commitment to protecting consumers and the environment.”
--Kyla Wiens, Energy Advocate, Montana Environmental Information Center
“WORC is generally supportive of the CLEAR Act would make polluters pay for their global warming pollution and return the money to Main Street instead of Wall Street. We are concerned about other approaches to climate change that would set up markets subject to manipulation. We’ve seen what market manipulation has done to livestock markets and we can do without it. The CLEAR act would avoid those problems with a fairer, simpler system that rewards efficiency, protects consumers and reduces carbon pollution.”
--Ellen Pfister-Shepherd, Chair of the Coal and Climate Change Campaign Team, Western Organization of Resource Councils and a Montana Rancher
