Bow Tie Blumenauer Proposes Using IRS Code to Fight "Carbon Pollution"

December 11, 2009

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Just as an aside, when people like the Congressman refer to things such as “carbon pollution,” you know that life itself is up for debate. As Tim Ball likes to point out to the Global Warmists Carbon is what life is made out of, CO2 is what is emitted by life forms: they’re very different things. But no matter, Earl is on a roll and the world’s greens are paying him some attention so “carbon pollution” it is.
This is what was hidden inside the $1.1 Trillion dollar debacle (what recession?) passed Thursday by Democrats in the house (no Republicans voted for this slush fund): An audit of the IRS code to find out which tax subsidies or breaks result in less “carbon.”
Audits are a good thing but I believe we know where this is going: a continued ratcheting down of any industry perceived as emitting “carbon pollution,” which, by definition, is ALL of them.
Oregonians, I beg of you to realize that the far left people you send to Congress are eventually people who will influence the nation into doing their crazy ideas. Out with liberty and in with tyranny. We have an obligation to protect the rest of the nation from these folks by voting them out.
He spoke with the publication, “GRIST”and here are a couple of the questions and answers:
How will this help in shaping the tax code?
This is important data for me as a member of the Ways and Means Committee. In the next congress, things have to happen with the tax code—we can’t just go on auto-pilot. There are provisions expiring, there are revenue demands, there are lots of forces at work now, so there will be changes. There’s an opportunity for reform. Having this information is going to be an extraordinarily valuable tool to do our job right.
Do you have particular provisions in the tax code in mind, ones you think might come in for more scrutiny?
I do suspect that a provision I’ve been trying to get out of the tax code for several years now—we call it the Hummer Loophole, where we give tax advantages for people to buy the biggest, heaviest, most polluting vehicles on the planet—will show up as having no redeeming features relative to carbon impacts. But I really am not going into this with an agenda.  I’m not trying to pick out my favorite targets.
It’s no mystery what a carbon audit would reveal about fossil fuel subsidies though, right?
But quantification—that’s way that this needs to be looked at. This will help policymakers in EPA, administrators in Treasury, it’s going to help people in the legislative branch fine-tune our proposals. You’ll have many applications—you can’t beat having good solid information. I’m excited we got to this point.

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