Atlasia Clean Energy Act of 2010 (on the President's Desk)

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

You know Yankee, i have no problem with you not supporting this. I really don't. I hope you don't over inflate yourself to believe otherwise. Your vote is about as relevant as i am as a whole. But going off and calling me a has been who needs to be primaried is a bit much, donchathink? Once you get to be my age and become irrelevant and equivalent to half a senate seat, you'll look back and understand how hard it is for someone like me to be taken seriously anymore.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Fritz's dad makes some interesting remarks. He seems to hit on several of the things people tend to use when they oppose a bill such as this, and he does offer some good alternatives. I would be willing to accept his changes if it would make the bill more palatable to the masses, though I don't know how I'd like the idea of taxing all emissions in the manner in which he described. I'm also no expert in this field either. I'll be the first to admit.

Also, I'd rather not include mandates to force them to spend the money they get back on energy research. I would hope the fees that would be imposed in the future would be enough to deter them from straying from the plan. The incentive of more tax breaks if they exceed their goals is another provision included to nudge businesses in the right direction.

Perhaps my Republican side comes out in this bill when I give businesses such leeway with those tax refunds. I don't know.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I'll abstain from voting for the admendment, but i would be fine with allowing the other provisions to remain outside of cap and trade, especially the tax cuts for businesses who invest in clean energy are kept.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

So we have essentially struck the cap and trade bit from this bill?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Could someone speak as to how this bill differs from current law (if any exists on the matter)?

From what I understand, the current laws on the books do not set a target limit to the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere. Rather, it increases the tax each year over the span of a twenty year period. It also does not give any incentives to cut your emissions as long as you pay the tax. The amended version of this bill still sets a goal to where Atlasia needs to be when it comes to carbon emissions and cuts the corporate tax initially and also provides further incentives to invest in green technology.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Aye