More Than 200 Rally At The State Capital Against Cap And Trade - WOWK-TV

Charleston -- More than 200 people protested at the West Virginia State Capital Saturday. The organizers of the Cap and Trade protest said they are worried about the Cap And Trade legislation in Congress. One side of the issue calls the measure a way to reduce emissions. Others see the legislation as an emission tax that will trickle down to the consumer, increasing costs for such things as electricity at the cost of thousands of jobs.

"Very worried and very stressed. I don't know what's going to happen day to day. I don't like the uncertainties of not knowing if he's going to come home and say that's it. I don't have a job," said Amber Blevins of Sissonville. Her husband is a coal miner.

"If we loose that competitive advantage by increasing our energy costs, those jobs will probably go away," said Dean Cordle, a Kanawha County businessman.

The actual Cap and Trade legislation is 1,500 pages. "If it's 1,500 pages you know it's bad because trying to hide a heck of a lot, and if I had a football notebook 1,500 pages every football player on my team could never understand it," said former WVU Football Coach Don Nehlen.

Before the rally, Nehlen was a speaker at an education forum designed to inform the public about "Cap And Trade"

"So we found that being out and talking with people many didn't know what cap and trade was," says Thorney Lieberman, a co-organizer of the forum and rally. "The proper fear is not that it will drive your electric bill up, that's largely a fear-creating tactic being used by organizations like the West Virgina Conservative Fund," said Joe Rinehart of the group Coal River Mountain Watch.

The next stop for the legislation is the US Senate. "It's definitely not going to pass in the form that it passed in the House. There's no way. It cannot get through in that oronous of a bill. We'll have to stop it," said Representative Shelley Moore-Capito, (R)-West Virginia.

With the trouble the bill had in the House, Congresswoman Capito believes it will have a tougher time in the Senate. The Senate is expected to consider the issue this fall.

Of course it's true that if Cap and Trade is allowed to pass, electricity will become so expensive as to be unaffordable for many people. Candidate Obama was very clear about this. On the campaign trail he said that under his plan the cost of electricity would "necessarily skyrocket" and that he intended to bankrupt the coal industry. It's easy to find on google or youtube... just use the search terms {electricity "necessarily skyrocket"}.

Candidate Obama also said that we wouldn't be able to drive our SUVs, keep the thermostat at 72 degrees or eat as much as we want. And he has provided the means for all that ... in Cap and Trade. The gentleman from the Farm Bureau explained the food part yesterday at the town hall meeting -- Cap and Trade will kill not only coal mining but also American farms, and we will end up having to import our food from other countries. Mind-boggling, isn't it?

The good news is that Obama is keeping a lot of his promises.

I trust that your everyday citizen is smart enough to understand that what Mr. Rinehart stated in this article is fictcious. Even proponants of this catastrophic bill recognize that the cost is going to be passed to the consumer. Mr. Rinehart stumbled on his words at the Rally and was not equipt to argue his point intelligently.

If anyone watched Glenn Beck last week there was a EPA big shot with alot of info on how the Co2 gas ommitted from the burning of coal has shown no sign of damaging the atmosphere or causing any kind of tempature altering. I didn't know anything abouot a protest but would be glad to support it. Thanks to all that did show up and thanks West Virginia for the jobs we've got. Coal is almost everything right now to the economy so lets protect it and do what it takes to support it. God Bless our homes and families that depend on it.

Thank God for the common sense of the protestors.

I ask that they help roll back existing climate change laws such as www.RGGI.org by signing the petition at http://www.co2isok.org/petition.html

Cap and Trade came from ENRON in the 90s. Where is ENRON today? Where will America be in......with cap and trade? Made in........not here it wont be.

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