The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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June 25, 2009

Your View: Look at facts about Clean Energy Act

Paul A. Lindfors, North Mankato

As soon as today, the U.S. House could vote to launch the first national plan to address global warming. The bill is called the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The time to pass it is now.

As our leaders debate this historic step it is important to separate fact from fiction.

Fiction: Household energy costs could rise by an average of $3,100 per year.

Fact: The Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of the bill and concluded that, in 2020, the net nation-wide cost of the cap-and-trade program at the core of this bill would be about $175 per household. Households in the lowest 20% of income would see an average net savings of $40.

Fiction: Farmers and rural communities will be hurt.

Fact: Farmers can create and sell carbon offsets. Farmers can lease their land for wind turbines and their buildings for solar panels. Leasing land for just one wind turbine could provide a Minnesota farmer about $3,000 per year in additional income. Farmers will produce — and profit from —cleaner energy of the future.

Fiction: Thousands of jobs will be lost.

Fact: An analysis found a combination of the clean energy investments in the American Clean Energy and Security Act and the stimulus package, would create a net of 1.7 million jobs — well-paying, highly skilled manufacturing jobs and the kind that are hard to outsource.

I believe this is one of the most important votes of our time. This is a rare moment in history when the urgency to act is so clear and the stakes are so high.

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