Nearly 20 people arrested for protesting Virginia Congressman Boucher’s efforts to block strong climate legislation

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2009—15 concerned citizens were arrested today for peacefully blocking the entrance to Virginia Congressman Boucher’s office protesting his efforts to gut strong climate legislation at the expense of American families. Congressman Boucher has driven efforts in Congress to give away billions of dollars worth of free permits directly to coal, oil and other dirty fossil fuel companies under a cap and trade bill.

Participants who chose not to risk arrest stood outside the doorway holding statements of support sent in by southwest Virginians.

‘I’ve been a supporter of yours since your first race, but it’s time to put the health of the planet ahead of short-term profits,” read a statement from Chris Prokosch of Floyd, Virginia. “The coal industry will have to clean up sooner or later — later may be too late for all of us.” Read more statements from southwestern Virginians.

The action was also endorsed by the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, based in Wise County, Virginia. They also sent in a statement to Congressman Boucher that we delivered.

Instead of making polluters pay for the permits to dump carbon into the atmosphere, an approach President Obama supported during his campaign, Rep. Boucher has negotiated a deal where 35 percent of the allowances will be given away directly to utilities, also called local distribution companies. Allowances given to these companies would be worth $20.8 billion a year starting in 2012.

In April, the Environmental Protection Agency conducted an analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill (in discussion form) and found that giving free allocations to utilities under a cap and trade program would raise the total cost of the program and hurt poor Americans the most.

“Returning the allowance value to consumers of electricity via local distribution companies… makes the cap-and-trade policy more costly overall,” the EPA concluded in its analysis. “Freely distributed allowances to firms tends to be very regressive. Higher income households may actually gain at the expense of lower income households under this policy.”

More than fifty people gathered outside Congressman Boucher’s office at noon today to highlight how Boucher’s handouts to the coal industry will hurt working families and diminish efforts to fight global warming. They said they hoped their efforts would send a message to other members of Congress that now is the time for bold, urgent action to solve global warming and that they will be held accountable for their stance on the bill.

Virginia Tech student Joshua Deutschmann traveled to Capitol Hill to join the protest.

“As a student and a voter in Southwest Virginia, I was deeply disappointed by Representative Boucher’s response to the Waxman-Markey climate bill,” he said. “It appears he has played a key part in dismantling the core of the bill, emphasizing dirty coal instead of clean renewable technology and jobs in Southwest Virginia.”

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Tags: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, Boucher, climate change, Coal, global warming

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