Home Jobs Employment Media Contacts Tours Video Gallery Photo Gallery Event Registration Calendar Generation Portfolio Buy power for resale
Government Action Report
 |
|
Mike Eggl, Basin Electric Senior Vice |
Mike Eggl, senior vice president of External Relations and Communications, introduced the Government Action Report during the Thursday morning session of the 2009 Annual Meeting.
Eggl presented an overview of the current Congressional climate bill proposals, specifically focusing on the Waxman-Markey bill and the Kerry-Boxer bill.
Mike Eggl 2009 speech excerpts
"Getting a handle on the details of these bills has been very important to us. Getting agreement within the policymaker framework about exactly what each of these bills means to Basin Electric, to our Class A members, to the member at the end of the line has been a difficult process but one that we're continuing to engage in."
"What is cap-and-trade? The best way I can describe cap-and-trade is it's a game of musical chairs. Take this room. We've got 1,000 chairs and 1,000 people, we have 6 billion tons, roughly, of carbon emitted in the U.S. The proposal is to set a cap, take 20 percent of the chairs out. So, 20 percent of the people are going to have to pay for the right to sit down. Then, as you move forward on a year by year basis, you take more and more of the chairs out. People will have to pay more and more for the right to sit down ... the right to emit carbon."
Rep. Herseth Sandlin and Sen. Barrasso
| On this page |
|
Read speech excerpts from the ND Congressional Delegation. U.S. Sens. Dorgan and Conrad, along with U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, joined the 2009 Annual Meeting via satellite from Washinton, D.C. |
Sen. John Barrasso
"I've spent hours at committee hearings on another major issue and that's the cap-and-trade legislation. I like to refer to it as a cap-and-tax scheme. This legislation is going to be a massive energy tax on all of the people of America. Cap-and-tax will cost American jobs. Cap-and-tax will increase the cost of American energy."
Rep. Herseth Sandlin
"Because a large part of the coal reserves are found in the U.S., any energy or climate change bill must devote the needed research in development dollars to clean coal and provide the kind of carbon capture and sequestration boost that's needed to capitalize on our nation's and this region's strong coal reserves that help keep electricity rates affordable."
Sen. Byron Dorgan 2009 speech excerpts
 |
|
U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) joined |
"... There’s kind of a breathless notion here in Washington, D.C. and in the Congress about health care and climate change. Both are important issues, but I think my priority is jobs. If I were developing the agenda, I’d say when you’re standing in the deepest economic hole since the Great Depression the most important issue is to put the economy back on track and put people back to work. ... Yet we’re off on health care and that’s going to take at least until the end of the year and also the issue of climate change. The important part of the economy, in my judgment, includes economic recovery and jobs but also energy because energy is a significant jobs issue."
Climate change legislation
"When we get to climate change I’m not a big fan of cap-and-trade. I say cap carbon, yes; cap-and-trade, no. Let me explain why. This notion of saying to Wall Street,'you go ahead and set up a trillion dollar carbon security trading mechanism, and on Monday and Tuesday, investment bankers and speculators decide, based on how they trade carbon securities, what our energy price is going to be on Thursday. Not for me; count me out. I’d much prefer we do something much simpler than that. Perhaps a carbon fee and dividend."
"It’s very important that we get targets and timetables correct when we do a climate change bill because if we don’t, it means that our most abundant resource won’t continue to be used, which makes no sense to me. I think we ought to do it all in energy and that includes continuing to use our most abundant resource, which is coal."
Future
"I didn’t talk when I started about our unbelievable dependence on foreign oil; the need to be less dependent; the need for energy security and national security. Even as we pull out of this difficult economic situation, even as we address health care, we need to find a consensus on climate change. This country, in my judgment, will have a wonderful economic future and a wonderful energy future if we use common sense and believe in ourselves. So, Basin Electric is a significant part of that. Thanks for the leadership and thanks to all the members of Basin that stand behind this cooperative up in the Northern Great Plains. Thank you so much."
Sen. Kent Conrad 2009 speech excerpts
 |
|
U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) joined |
"Second, I advised him to proceed with health care because that is the 800 pound gorilla in terms of the fiscal future of this country. The largest unfunded liability of the United States is in Medicare. It is seven times the unfunded liability of Social Security.
"Third, I recommended to him that we advance an energy bill to reduce our dependence on foreign energy and put off climate change until sometime later. So far, obviously we’ve not prevailed with respect to that recommendation."
A future for coal
"I met with Secretary Chu earlier this year and he assured me that he understands that our nation will continue to be powered by coal. He didn’t just tell me in response to a question I asked; he told 50 members of the United States Senate precisely that. He said, just I have said, that 50 percent of our nation’s electricity comes from coal and that is likely to continue. Our challenge is to develop the technology to sequester the carbon that comes from that coal. I believe the President understands that if we address climate change without securing an appropriate role for coal, it would dramatically raise the cost of electricity for all of our consumers."
Climate legislation proposals
"I’ve met with Basin Electric and I’ve met with other industry representatives and welcome the constructive proposals that you have advanced, ranging from the allocation of allowances to ways to control costs. Those proposals I am forwarding to Senator Kerry and Senator Boxer. Senator Kerry told me he welcomed that and looked forward to meeting with you at your earliest convenience to discuss these proposals."
Rep. Earl Pomeroy 2009 speech excerpts
 |
|
U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) joined |
Climate change legislation
"Climate change in the House ... passes 219-212, I voted against it. I voted against it because I felt it fell short in two critical areas. First, the targets they put could not be met. Basically, a 17 percent reduction by year 2020 of CO2 emissions to bring us back to 2005 levels are not achievable with technology that is presently commercially available. Don't make us jump off the bridge and try and invent the parachute thereafter."
"I don't see anything happening quickly on this massive bill. ... The good news is it wasn't final passage, there's plenty of chance to work on it."
"Capturing the input from our electric cooperatives with the cooperative spirit of Basin Electric that I mentioned at the outset. We're going to be able to fashion this thing in a way that can work."
Headquarters
1717 East Interstate Avenue
Bismarck, ND 58503-0564 USA
Phone: 701.223.0441
