Sen. Kit Bond says President Obama’s green jobs initiative will hurtmanufacturing jobs in the Midwest.
When putting together a final budget deal, democrats stripped Bond’s amendment to protect workers, which passed the U.S. Senate earlierthis month. Bond’s provision would have given Congress the ability to stop climate legislation that would cost a significant amount of jobs.
He says proposals that raise carbon based revenue and energyprices will also disproportionately hit coal- and manufacturing-dependentregions, specifically the Midwest, Great Plains and South.
The current plan to increase green jobs will cost huge subsidies, he says, to create jobsthat only pay around $13 dollars an hour, not even close to what goodmanufacturing jobs pay.
In criticizing democrats for removing his protective amendment to the bill, Bond says they "are giving a green light to killing Midwesternmanufacturing jobs. As many hard-hit communities in theMidwest know, manufacturing workers are already suffering."
The amendment passed the Senatein March by a vote of 54 to 44
The industrialsectors Bond pointed out as being put at risk are auto assembly, steel, aluminum,plastics, chemicals, glass, fertilizer and pharmaceuticals.
"TheNational Association of Manufacturers estimated that the $6.7 trillionLieberman-Warner cap and trade bill defeated by the Senate last yearwould kill 3 million to 4 million jobs by 2030," Bond’s office reports.
President Obama’s proposal,which contains stricter emissions cuts and full use of cost maximizingauctions, is expected to be even more onerous and kill even more jobs.
Bond’s "Yellow Light on Green Jobs" report can be viewed here.
Jessica Machetta reports [Download/listen MP3]
