Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison discusses the proposed cap-and-trade bill making it's way through the capital at a press conference held Monday afternoon at Western Container. According to Hutchison, the bill, if approved, could almost double residential electric rates and send utility costs for businesses spiraling out of control. (HERALD photo/Thomas Jenkins)

By THOMAS JENKINS     
Staff Writer
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison made a stop in Big Spring Monday afternoon at Western Container to talk about ongoing legislation in the nation's capitol, including healthcare reform and the cap-and-trade bill.

First on the senior Texas Senator's list of concerns is President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plan, an agenda the she described as nothing short of scary.

“The things that are happening in Congress right now are pretty scary to a lot of people,” said Hutchison. “Not only do we see massive spending going on, but it's creating debt so far out we can't even see. Healthcare reform, and then cap-and-trade following that. Two areas I think the administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress just don't understand. They don't understand the real world because I think they've been in academia. So they think, 'Oh, healthcare reform, let's just have this government alternative, and that will be good for everyone.' Government alternative is going to take away all of the private health insurance in this country.

“You can't compete as a private insurer with the government. So, more and more people are going to be bled off to the government system, and it's very costly. What they are doing is cutting hospital reimbursements in order to pay for this plan, or they are going to tax our employers to give plans if they don't pay enough of the premiums, or they are going to tax people if they don't have insurance. It's counter-intuitive, and I'm going to do everything I can to stop that government takeover of healthcare.”

Despite concern for healthcare reform, Hutchison spent the majority of her time Monday afternoon discussing the cap-and-trade bill that recently passed the House of Representatives.

“Now they have a cap-and-trade bill, and they have barely passed the House (of Representatives) because even many Democrats wouldn't vote for it,” said Hutchison. “Now it's coming over to the Senate and the word is the Senate Committee, the committee that's going to take it up, is going to mark  up the cap-and-trade bill in the next two weeks. We don't think it will be on the floor until next year because the healthcare reform is taking the floor time, but here's what it does. It puts a cap on any emissions into the air that are carbon emissions. And it's going to tax businesses if they go over that emissions level.

”Well, you would say, 'That's a good thing, isn't it? We're going to help the environment by capping emissions?' Even the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) administrator says it will do nothing to stop the global emissions, and wouldn't even help the environment because no other country is doing this. So what is happening is you're putting America at a disadvantage for no purpose because all of the other countries are emitting the carbons into the air, it's going to come into America. So it's not going to help us with the environment, but it's going to be very costly.”

And while Hutchison describes the cap-and-trade bill as a step in the wrong direction for the U.S., she said it could have disastrous effects on the Texas economy.

“It's going to cost taxes on every country or company that puts out carbon emissions, which would be refineries,” said Hutchison. “It happens Texas is one-fourth the refining capacity in America, and one-fourth of all the energy supply comes right out of Texas. However, when the taxes are put on those refineries, it's going to raise the price of everything. It's certainly going to raise the price of everything here (at Western Container), because this is a plastic product that's made from petroleum products.

“It's also going to put a tax on every company that uses energy because the price is going up for your exploration and your refining capacity. Your refiners are going to get more taxes, and your drillers and people exploring for oil and natural gas are going to have their prices go up, so what's going to happen to the price of your raw products? It's going up. And that's something that's just going to make you anti-competitive, maybe with Japan, because if your energy prices go up so much, then it's going to start encroaching on so many other businesses.”

Hutchison claims the bill also threatens to increase jobless rates throughout the state.

“I'm very concerned about this cap-and-trade bill. I hope we can fight this in the United States Senate so it doesn't get out in this way. It will be especially hard on Texas,” she said. “The estimates the Comptroller has put out are Texas could lose as few as 170,000 jobs and as many as 470,000 jobs because this bill would do so much to raise the price of everything. This is a state that has lost 300,000 just this year. We have the highest unemployment rate in the region now. At a time when our businesses are struggling, when we want to create jobs, not lose jobs, I think this is a very bad bill at this particular time.”

And while Hutchison claims the bill will drive up costs for petroleum-related businesses – such as Western Container, which uses petroleum products to make plastic bottles – she claims it will also devastate the pocketbooks of everyday consumers.

“A non-petroleum business will be effected because the price of energy will go up. All energy, whether it's natural gas, electricity or gasoline at the pump,” said Hutchison. “Energy prices are going up, so every business is going to be paying those higher prices and having to charge higher prices to consumers. It's estimated your home electricity bill will go up 90 percent because of this legislation. So every family is going to have higher costs, as well, for all of the energy they use. So it's going to effect any business, petroleum-based or not, every family and every consumer. Prices are going to go up on everything, and that's going to hurt our job situation.”

While Hutchison said she'll staunchly stand against the bill, the Senator said the Republicans in the Senate are doing their part to help the environment by pushing for more nuclear power plants in the Lone Star State.

“We (Republicans in the Senate) are trying to put forward efforts to, for instance, increase nuclear power,” said Hutchison. “It's very efficient, it's environmentally friendly, and it's low cost once you've made the investment. We need more nuclear power plants in Texas. We have some, and we could use even more. The Republicans promote this and we've tried to increase the number of nuclear power plants by lowering the amount of time it takes to get a permit, and also have loan guarantees. President Obama does not support nuclear power, but we believe that is a very positive addition to the energy resources we would have.”

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it