Politico is reporting that U.S. Senator Jim Webb does not favor the current Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade bill being drafted in the Senate.
“In its present form I would not vote for it,” he said. “I have some real questions about the real complexities on cap and trade.”
Instead, Webb is working with Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander on a plan that goes heavy on nuclear power – a safe, reliable, and relatively inexpensive alternative energy. Webb favors doubling its use over the next twenty years.
“Senator Webb has finally listened to the thousands of Virginians who have rejected a cap-and-trade tax that would force them to pay much higher prices for gasoline and electricity and ship what’s left of our manufacturing sector abroad – with no environmental benefit to show for it,” wrote American for Prosperity President Tim Phillips. “Webb has joined a large and growing group of cap-and-trade skeptics who know our already-weak economy can’t afford anything that would raise energy prices and cause more hardship for taxpayers.”
So, this has been a good week for Webb. First, he was right in agreeing with Rep. Frank Wolf about not bringing Kalid Sheik Mohammad to New York…and now this.
I like Webb in his “present form.” Let’s hope he stays this way for awhile.
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. 
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It looks like the lesson of the November 3rd elections were not lost on all VA Democrats. Look for “I am not really a fiscal conservative but I play one on TV” Warner to follow suit in the not too distant future if he wishes to have more than one term in the Senate. The rest of the Dems may have their head in the sand, but VA is swinging red again and it appears that at least Webb realizes that fact.
Is cap-and-trade a liberal or conservative position? It seems to be a market-based solution that advocates the free market leading the way on the environment. That said, it is liberals for it and conservative against it.
Cap-and-trade is anything but free market. It is government regulation to the hilt, new energy taxes and usage taxes etc, etc. It will kill the US economy and any industry we have left.
I’m amazed at how few blogs picked this up. Kudos to BD. You all have really been on top of this issue- nice job.
Southeast and Southwest Virginia are going to take it on the chin should this legislation pass, and Webb knows it. They’ll be devasted from an economic standpoint, leaving NoVA, Richmond, and the surviving pieces of Hampton Roads left to financially offset (even more than they already do)these already struggling regions of the state.
GovGirl,
The principle of Cap-and-Trade is injecting “carbon credits” into the market, setting regulations as too the level of emissions a company can use. The credits then become the basis of trading in which larger companies try to buy off credits from smaller companies to sustain larger emissions. This is essentially a “free market reward” to those businesses polluting less.
Consider Crap-and-Tax a tax on you exhaling. Make sure to have less children to reduce the “Carbon Footprint”