Protesters say Perriello’s vote will cost jobs
Calling U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello a “traitor” and a “coward,” roughly 125 protesters picketed the freshman Democrat’s Charlottesville office Thursday to denounce Perriello’s vote for an energy bill that aims to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
The protesters were angry that Perriello supported the American Clean Energy and Security Act — also known as “cap and trade” — that they said would cost millions of jobs and burden consumers with higher electricity bills in the name of promoting clean energy and reducing global warming.
“We will take our country back and set it back on its intended course,” said Keith Drake, chairman of the Albemarle Truth in Taxation Alliance and a member of the Jefferson Area Tea Party organization. “We’re doing this for our children and we’re doing it for our grandchildren.”
Perriello, who did not attend the protest, defended his vote in favor of the bill, a measure that he said would create numerous jobs, tackle climate change, strengthen national security and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.
“This is going to be a great win for Central and Southside Virginia,” Perriello said.
Legislators such as Perriello, the protesters complained, could not possibly have weighed the full implications of the massive 1,200-page bill that narrowly passed the House late last week.
The Jefferson Area Tea Party sponsored Thursday’s protest. The group held a rally at the Charlottesville Pavilion on April 15 to criticize what its members consider to be out-of-control taxing and spending by the federal government.
In the crowd at Thursday’s protest, there were several yellow Gadsden flags that depict a coiled rattlesnake and the words “Don’t Tread on Me.” Protesters held signs with such slogans as: “Hooray!! Another Political Prostitute;” “Tom Perriello is a Cap + Traitor;” and “Perriello — An Incompetent, Cowardly, Treasonous Fellow.”
Charlottesville resident Betty Sevachko said the federal government is “throwing her under the bus” with taxes and higher energy costs.
“I’m not going to let them take everything I have worked so hard for,” she said.
One protester questioned whether climate change is real, prompting a loud cheer from the crowd. “It’s a way to control us!” one man yelled.
During Perriello’s successful bid to unseat Republican Virgil H. Goode Jr. last year, one of Perriello’s top campaign promises was to position the 5th District — which stretches from the Charlottesville area down to Danville and Martinsville — at the forefront of the nation’s emerging green energy economy.
“Americans are looking for leadership and solutions,” Perriello said. “The only people against this were oil executives, Saudi princes and energy lobbyists. It wasn’t a hard decision.”
Opponents of the bill, Perriello said, are distorting the facts to further their agenda and score cheap political points. Energy costs may go up for some, he said, but costs will go down for many.
He cited a Congressional Budget Office study that found that the legislation would cost the average household $175 or less in 2020, not including any energy-efficiency savings.
“The reality is that the most people will pay is a postage stamp a day,” Perriello said.
Perriello is one of 13 Democrats in swing districts being targeted by an ad blitz by the National Republican Congressional Committee because of their support of cap-and-trade. While the NRCC has bought radio ads and is making phone calls against other Democrats, Perriello is the only congressman being targeted with TV ads.
“Tom Perriello’s vote for a job-killing national energy tax that will raise consumer costs in the midst of a recession is nothing short of appalling,” said Andy Sere, the NRCC’s regional press secretary. “The fact of the matter is, Tom Perriello proved with last week’s vote that he is categorically hostile to the values of the working families of Central and Southside Virginia.”
Perriello, Sere said, will “pay a political price next year.”
On Thursday, the NRCC’s ad against Perriello came under fire. The nonpartisan Factcheck.org found that the NRCC ad exaggerated claims against the legislation, such as the size of energy cost increases for families.
The NRCC bought airtime for the ad in the Roanoke and Lynchburg markets. According to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, WDBJ-TV of Roanoke declined to run the ad after seeing the questions raised about the ad’s accuracy.
“The NRCC has a track record of running ads so deceptive and misleading that local TV stations refuse to air them or have to remove from the airwaves,” Jessica Santillo, a regional press secretary with the DCCC, said in a statement.
“Clearly, Washington Republicans realize that the truth is not on their side so they resort to deceptive and false attack ads. Virginians deserve to hear the facts about how this bill will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, not be subject to scare tactics.”
The energy bill now heads to the U.S. Senate for consideration, though no exact date has yet been set.
The Jefferson Area Tea Party is planning another protest at 1 p.m. Saturday at Jackson Park in downtown Charlottesville.
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Reader Reactions
What is the evidence that the Annenberg Foundation, founded by Walter Annenberg and still operated in accordance with his interests, is a liberal organization? We have deadly serious issues to confront in order to insure that the planet survives our modern follies.
Babbling on about dinosaurs and flatulence is not helpful but it serves to distract voters from the obvious: conservatives want to protect their power and their purses at all costs.
Javaguy, If appearing on the NewsHour makes you liberal, then appearing on Fox makes you conservative? But Obama’s appeared on Fox! So what TV shows someone goes on demonstrates ... nothing.
Have glaciers advanced and retreated before? Sure. Nobody of any political or scientific persuasion claims otherwise. The point is that in the last 50 years or so they’ve been retreating radically nearly everywhere. That proves - without room for honest doubt - that the Earth is rapidly warming, in ways that among other things threaten the sources of major rivers in India and China, which if the warming continues will lead to major famine, war, large population migrations, and other dire outcomes.
You may judge it would be okay to live in that world. Others of us prefer a better future than that, and are willing to make minor economic investments now to avoid those pending tragedies in the not-too-far future. When did conservatism become willful blindness to the future?
Whit,
The guy is dead, the foundation is run by what I would call liberal people. The Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson regularly appears on PBS with Bill Moyers and on The NewsHour, can’t get much more liberal then that. Another director serves as a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute another liberal think tank. FactCheck twists the facts whether you want to admit it or not.
On the glacier issue, funny thing under a retreating glacier in Europe they found an old hut and signs of former occupants from hundreds of years ago. This proves that there is climate change, imagine that. The world was warmer hundreds of years ago. It must have been caused by dinosaur flatulence. Since the combustion engine hadn’t been invented yet.
Javaguy claims the Annenberg Foundation is “liberal.“ It’s not. Walter Annenberg was Nixon’s ambassador to Great Britain. He was close friends with the Reagans, and was the first to introduce them to Margaret Thatcher. The foundation he founded very much reflects his political views. But then, of course, President Obama also has high regard for Reagan.
As for glaciers melting, see
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070327113346.htm and the related articles linked from there. No single-year gain in a particular glacier’s mass can begin to offset the long term, serious losses occurring world wide.
“The nonpartisan Factcheck.org found that the NRCC ad exaggerated claims against the legislation…“ Factcheck.org is run by the liberal Annenberg Foundation which employed Obama from 1995 to 1999, hardly could be considered unbiased.
Besides that the add never stated that electricity cost would go up by $1800 per month it stated the legislation would cost average Americans $1800 in economic costs due to it’s affect on GDP. Factcheck twisted the facts to fit it’s agenda and that of the DNC.
Isn’t it ILLEGAL to enact legislation that was NOT READ, as it wasn’t assembled, when they voted for it????
This was rammed through, because the Democrats saw the more people learned about it the less support it had.
Antiboyd, I do not agree that the system is broken. It is being tested now. There are elements, i.e. Pelosi et al, who are completely deceptive. They will find out, Perriello included, that the facts are stubborn things.
It’s not the Federal Gov’ts job to use OUR MONEY to creat artificial energy markets!!! This same Cap and Tax scheme already failed when Spain tried it! Duh!
How much will this Cap and Tax add to the tax on a gallon of gas? Has anybody been able to read it yet and figure that out? I’ve heard 77 cents, but haven’t confirmed it yet.
Antiboyd, Goode never advocated doing away with welfare to cover basic human needs! Come on now! He fought to stop illegal immigrants, like the kind who’ve bankrupted California, from coming to take advantage of our Social Services! He wanted to enforce our laws!! Unlike the so called “Representative” we are stuck with who votes for one Bill after another without any transparency even for his own information.
This is what the Tea-Party Protests are all about.
Since we do not approve of the Cap and Trade solution, perhaps an easier approach should be made. We think that the best solution is to slap an energy tax on energy consumption and then issue direct cash credits to frugal consumers (not corporations.) Those who use energy more will find it more and more expensive to do so. Think of the toney stalwarts who drive Humvees to the 7-11. They pollute more, so they should pay more. Eventually, their ability to pay more and more will be overwhelmed. Start with a base fuel tax on gasoline of $1.00 and then rachet it up.
Since we have used more than half of the world’s petroleum supply already, and since that supply is owned by other countries who cannot be told how to use it or to whom they can sell it, we must assume that all of it will be used. We should concentrate our efforts now in stopping the operation of dirty coal-fired utilities. Stopping the use of coal should be our immediate concern. We are out of time.
Goode is a liability. There is very, very little that he represents that I could vote for. I’m not going to be delicate here—Virgil is a classic case of what is wrong with politicians sent to Washington, Rep or Dem. Master Tom may indeed continue to travel down the silly path he has embarked on, but no matter how stupid he appears to you, he will never get your vote anyway. No way a failed pol like Goode ever makes a comeback—that’s just good money thrown after bad. Nope, its high time for local Republicans to rediscover conservatism—it is not Good Ol Boy cronyism, its not cheing tobacco and wearing cowboy boots, its not about eliminating public support for basic public needs. A few more Goode ideas, and I’m living in Mississippi. Who needs that?
As for the current Energy Bill, as formulated by the House, its a 1200 page boondoggle. That was a nice try explaining the theory behind Cap and Trade, but that hardly resembles the details provided for in the Bill—which so typical of the current Congress is full of convoluted and counter-productive provisions. Sorry, it rewards all sorts of people with goodies, but does not do the job—first of which, is reducing consumption—second of which, is diversifying energy sources—third of all, is reducing dependence on foreign sources of energy—and last, leaving less of an imprint on the environment. Instead, we get the proverbial Trojan Horse designed by committee. I for one, don’t want anyone to have to live with the results, or foot the bill.
The economic and policy advisors to our President really need to do some remedial homework, and/or educate Congressional leadership, and/or need to lossen the grip of special interests on formulating legislation. The process is broken.
We are unable to discern why this economic policy has stirred such a severe reaction. Cap and Trade is similar to the program enacted by the Clean Air Act of 1990, which reduced the sulfur emissions that cause acid rain, and it met the goals at a much lower cost than industry or government predicted. It will be relatively cheaper and easier for certain firms to reduce their emissions below their required limit than others. The more efficient companies, who emit less than their allowance, can sell their extra permits to companies that are not able to make reductions as easily. This creates a system that guarantees a set level of overall reductions, while rewarding the most efficient companies and ensuring that the cap can be met at the lowest possible cost to the economy. On the profit side, if the federal government can auction the emissions permits to the companies required to reduce their emissions, it would create a large and dependable revenue stream. These financial resources could be used to achieve critical public policy objectives related to climate change mitigation and economic development. As for complaints about politics, the Republicans have been ruling the roost for twenty-eight of the last forty years and look at the mess they created.
You are totally hilarious Stamford!!!
It’s the Republicans fault that the Democrats can’t be bipartisan!!! Is it their fault too that votes are being rushed through w/o debate?? LOL It’s looking more and more like 1994 everyday.
FYI: Pelosi’s answer to why things are not being debated was “We won!!!“ Real nice huh?
I know a lot of Democrats who would change their vote of last Nov. if they could, this is not what they were expecting! That’s a fact. Perriello won by a whisker, thus my confidence he would not be able to win an election held now. His comments the other day, of having “no regrets” about his vote for Cap and Tax are not sitting well with Democrats who see Cap and Tax as for the disaster it is.
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