the national rate and at its highest point since 1941. what happened in january of 2007? ab-32 took effect and it began shutting down entire sectors of california's economy. let me give you just one example from my own district. the city of trucky, california, was about to sign a long-term power contract to get its electricity from a new e.p.a.-approved, coal-fired plant way off in utah. plant way off in utah. but ab-32 legislation caused them to abandon that contract. the replacement power that they acquired literally doubled their electricity costs. so when economists warn that we can expect electricity prices to double under the cap and trade bill, i can tell you from the bitter experience of my district that that is not some future prediction, that is an historical fact. .

governor schwarzenegger assured us that it would mean an explosion of new green jobs, the same promises we heard on this floor today. in california, exactly the opposite has happened. we lost so many jobs that the economic forecast is now using the d word, depression, to describe california's job market. mr. speaker, the cap and trade bill proposes what amounts to endlessly increasing taxes on any enterprises that produce carbon dioxide or other so-called greenhouse gas. we need to understand exactly what that means. it has profound implications for agriculture, construction, cargo and passenger transportation, energy production, baking and brewing, all of which produce enormous quantities of this compound. in fact, every human being produces 2.2 pounds carbon dioxide every day just by

breathing. applying it to the economy designed to radically constrict co-2 means radically constricting the economy. and this brings us to the fine print of the matter. if we look back at the hoover administration and how it turned the depression of 1929 into the depression of the 1950's, they looked to the smoot act that imposed a tax on imported products. the waxman-markey bill is our generations smoot act that imposes taxes on domestic products. let's ignore for the moment that the climate is constantly charging and global warming has been going on. let's ignore the fact that within recorded history, we know of periods when the earth's

climates has been warmer and others when it has been cooler. let's ignore thousands of meteorologyists who present concluded that co-2 gases are a negly geble factor. ignore all of that and we're still left with one lousy sense of timing. in the most serious recession since the great depression, why is it members of this house want to repeat the same mistakes that produced the great depression? watching how california has just wrecked its own economy and destroyed its own finances, why would members of this house want to do the same thing to our nation? mr. speaker, this is deadly serious stuff. this house has just made the biggest economic mistake since the days of herbert hoover. two things are certain if this measure becomes law. first, our planet is going to

continue to warm and cool as it has been doing for billions of years. and secondly, this house will have just delivered a staggering blow to our nation's economy wen our economy has been the most vulnerable. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: mr. schiff of california. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. conaway: i ask to speak out of order for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. conaway: today is a bad day for america. we just witnessed the passing of a bill that will have dramatic impact on our lives for years to come should it ever see the president's signature. 33:09, the dem cat majority landed on the internet a amendment to the already bloated

bill. the bragging of the thousands and thousands of work and hearings and processes that had gone into the development of the bill that was filed on monday left it a little short of the mark. in support of those thousands of hours, they were unable to get it right, so they used fine tuning for the 300-pager that was dropped this morning. that issue aside, a bad bill. science is never settled. take the example of galileo. the science of his time was that the earth was the center of the universe. the roman catholic church believed it. galileo bucked the system and said no, the son was the center of the universe and spent the last years of his life to buck the consensus of science. we both know they were wrong. most on the other side believe

that washington, d.c. is the center of the universe. science is never settled. we should continue to to question whatever it is that is out there. the sense of urgency that the other side ud to pass this bill the way they've done, it's quite muted. 25-year exemptions for certain energy companies to allow them to get their power plants under the wire to get support for this bill. the ag delays implementations. and so this sense of urg against illinois evaporates as well. this will be the cost of thousands of jobs. the example is the spanish experiment over the last 12 years. there is more greening of their economy shows that every single green job created that two private sector jobs were destroyed. of the green jobs created, only one in 10 were permanent jobs. our own president has said that

his cap and trade bill, which is the one that just passed will cause electricity rates to skyrocket, skyrocket, mr. speaker. that does not sound good when you are talking about a product that goes into every manufactured product in this country. that's not a good idea. this bill also, mr. speaker, nationalizes the building codes. no longer will you look to your planning and zoning commission or city council as to how the building code should be. you are going to have to look at the federal government. some bureaucrat in washington, d.c. is going to decide whether or not you can build a house and what the standards should be. congratulations. thank you so much, mr. 10th amendment. m.i.t. has a study this will cost every family in america $3,100 for implementation of this bill. all of the pain that's associated with this bill and quite frankly there is a lot of

pain and we will begin to see it as the details unfold. what do we get? i asked a climate scientist who feeds his family basically looking at this issue. if which pass this bill, can you in fact measure after 40 or 50 years the positive impact on our atmosphere? if we are going to spend $thoism 100 and lose jobs and decrase the standard of living, what do we get for our money? he looked me right in the eye and said maybe. maybe you can measure the impact? he said yeah, maybe. there is talk about the study that they performed should this happen or america go to a zero carbon footprint that the impact on the temperature will be like .07 degrees over that entire time frame.

again, not measurable, a lot of pain for no gain. mr. speaker, i guess the call to action for all of this is to our fell american citizens to get mad. i'm hoping, mr. speaker, this next week before they go to the 4th of july parades in their cars, which is a limited opportunity, because there this will be an opportunity they won't be able to drive the cars, we'll tell them the kind of cars, i hope they get mad and use this climate change bill, global warming bill to use that phrase, because the climate is not warming, i hope they use this to go after us on this. i hope they call their senators and tell them no. call your congressman who voted for this nonsense, there are 219 of them, go to the web, start calling them now and tell them they made a mistake. this bill is bad for america and bad for our economy and lower

our standard of living and will allow our president to have a photo op in december while the chinese leaders laughed behind his back. the speaker pro tempore: mr. burton. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: i wish to reclaim my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. poe: thank you, mr. speaker. we all know that liberty is not free. and our history shows that it cost a stand on principle. but freedom has always been worth the price. even before that magic list was published in 1776 on july 4th of the signers of the declaration of independence, those 56 men, the british menu who they were and marked down every member of congress suspected of putting their name to their traceonous document. all of them became the objects of manhunts by the british. the

punishment was death by hanging. of the 56 who signed, nine of them died from wounds or hardships during the american war of independence. five were captured and imprisonned and in each case they retreated. several lost their wives or sons or entire families. one member lost all 13 of his children. two wives were drought alley treated and all at one time were victims of manhunts or driven from their homes. 12 signers had their homes completely burned. 17 lost everything they owned, not one defected or went back on their pledged word. their honor and the nation they created is still in tact. they pledged to themselves, their lives and fortunes and sacred honor and did not go back on their word. abraham clark gave two sons in the officer corps in the revolutionary army but they were

captured and sent to the prison ship in new york hash oish known as hell ship jersey where thousands of americans who had been captured were going to die. they were treated with special brutality because of their father. the british told clark to come out in favor of the king and the sons' lives would be spared. abraham clark in his answer replied no. francis lewis was a new york delegate and saw his home plundered completely destroyed by the british. his wife was captured and treated with great brutality because of her husband. john hart of trenton, new jersey returned home to see his dying wife. but soldiers rode after him and escaped into the woods. the soldiers ruined his farm. hart, 65, hid in the woods as he was hunted. when he made it home, he found

that his wife had been buried and his 13 children had disappeared. he never saw any of them again. judge richard stockman, another new jersey signer, had rushed back to his estate in an effort to evacuate his wife and children. the family found receive puge with friends. judge stockman was found in the middle of the night and arrested and put in jail. congress arranged for his parole. when he returned home to find his estate looted, he did not see the triumph. john morton was a british sympathizer, but once he came to sign the declaration of independence, he changed his mind and came out strongly for independence. most of his neighbors, however, in pennsylvania and his relatives, were british sympathizers and ostracized him. when he died one year later after signing the declaration of

independence, his last words to his tormenters were, quote, tell them they will leave to see the hour and see the signing of the declaration of independence that i have rendered to my country. there were similar stories with the other 51 signers of the declaration of independence. a person who did not sign the declaration, but one of my favorite persons in history and son of liberty was a school teacher by the name of nathan hale. he was from connecticut and 22-year-old teacher by trade but joined the colonial army. at the battle of harlem heights, george washington was facing battle and asked for a volunteer to go behind enemy lines and spy on behalf of the colonial army. hale volunteered. he disguised himself as a dutch school master and set out for a week and gathered information on the position of the british but finally captured when returning

to the american lines. because of papers that he had in his possession, the british knew he was a spy. and it is said that his cousin betrayed him. so they ordered him to be hanged the following day without trial. on september 22, 1776, american nathan hale was hanged for spying on british troops. his familiarous last words, i regret i have one life to give to my country. this 4th of july we should pledge to ourselves and our nation, no matter the costs, we who live here now will never let the flag of freedom disappear from our land, a land that god has shed his grace upon. and that's the way it is. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas rise?

if there is no objection, the gentlewoman will be recognized for five minutes. ms. jackson lee: : let me thank the distinguished speaker and say to him i have enjoyed working with him and i thank him for his leadership. mr. speaker, i love america. there is no better country, and i think it is well to express it at the same time of acknowledging the importance of the world family and the respect and dignity that all people around the world deserve. so as i stand before my colleagues today recognizing that in a few days we'll celebrate america's birthday, it reminds me of the uniqueness of this country that we have the opportunity to agree and disagree but democracy stands. we have an opportunity to show

people what they disbelief -- disbelieve. we have an opportunity to correct what others may have had a chance to misrepresent. so it is important that we had a vigorous debate today on the american clean energy and security act of 2009. it is important that we respect the differences of our regions. my good friends on the other side of the aisle, midwest earners, people from the west coast, east coast, the southeastern part of the united states. our friends as far away as hawaii and alaska. but it is important to note that there was a value that we were discussing. it was not a value to eliminate jobs. to punish certain regions of certain industries. for having been an oil and gas lawyer for a number of years, having worked in natural gas, pipeline companies i know the value of all of the hard work of those who are in that

industry. in fact, it has been my argument we should have a seamless energy policy that continues to enhance and to work with those who are existing in our energy industry today but let's make it better. mr. speaker, when the wright brothers created that small plane, almost a glider, in the carolinas, it probably was flown by one person. but as we improved, we began to do jetliners and planes that could fly across the ocean and we created jobs. pilots, flight attendants, airlines, and all the employees that come with it. so in essence even as our technology changes, jobs may change, but jobs are created. the american clean energy and security act will create some 1.7 million jobs and will unlock billions in industry investment and be a major be job creator.

$750 per household will in fact be part of the savings that many americans will see. this doesn't include the new benefits that will come from new technology, reduce pollution, economic growth, or job creation. i live in houston. i live in the refinery corer door. so we know what pollution is all about, but we know what jobs are all about. so i believe we can have both. this is the first step for this bill, mr. speaker. it moves to the senate. and i've told my constituents you have a guardian against the loss of jobs and that you will see savings. $29 billion in consumer savings. the american council for energy efficient economy found that energy efficiency provisions in this bill would save $29 billion. it is important to note as well that we have the opportunity to listen and change. let me just share with you some of the work after reading the

bill until 5:30 a.m. in the morning on thursday morning. reading the manager's amendment which could actually be done. and knowing what is in front of us. first of all i discussed and got taken out the impact of building labeling on old buildings, old homes. so the bill was limited to new construction. we are going to work to ensure that if they do a building labeling program as was brought to my attention by the national realtors, that old buildings, old homes will not be labeled. your value will not be devalued because of a lack of energy efficiency efforts in your home. we worked on that because we believe a home is to be cherished. then we opened up the opportunities to minority owned, and women-owned businesses to ensure they would be guaranteed the right to be involved in energy, innovative companies. we did that because we were concerned about creating jobs and we know that small

businesses do create jobs. in addition, i was concerned about displacement, temporary displacement, even though some of these jobs, 1.7 million, will come to my community. and so we have language that says the secretary of labor will monitor the potential growth of impacted and displaced workers to ensure that necessary funding, funding for training, funding for giving people a bridge to go into a new job, will be be, in fact, included. we know that there are issues between big refineries and small refineries. mr. speaker, it is crucial that those issues be be addressed as we make our way to the senate. we also know that the energy industry was divided. some were supporting this legislation. others were taking a back seat. now they have come full circle. and they believe that this is a time that they should rally to provide information. mr. speaker, as i close let me just say, we are going to work this bill. we are not going to lose jobs. we are going to have an

investment of green jobs and we are going to have an investment in our energy industry and houston will be fine and texas will be fine. we will be working together. i yield back, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: mr. spratt of south carolina. mr. doggett of texas. pursuant to the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from texas, mr. gohmert, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. gohmert: thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate the time. this is a trying time and i appreciate my friend from texas belief and hope in the future. i just have read enough of of this bill and know enough to understand about the consequences. this isn't the whole bill. this is 2/3 of it. the other 300 pages they allowed me to borrow a copy briefly earlier today during

debate, right before the debate closed, but this is about 2/3 of it. we are having a job fair in longview, texas monday. that arose when i met with a bunch of my constituents, most all were african-americans, a month or so ago who had lost jobs because jobs were being moved overseas. energy was too costly here. the corporate tax is twice as much here as -- over twice as much as what it is in china. and i have been hearing from other manufacturers that we have in our district that if this cap and trade bill goes through and becomes law, there will be many more lost jobs. and it breaks my heart.

it broke my heart to meet with those people there in north lufkin and others around my district who have lost jobs. so that's why i got to thinking, what can i maybe do to help? and i know the texas work force commission does a good job of having job fairs and trying to match up job openings with people's job skill sets and try to get people a job. as someone said on the floor earlier on our side of the aisle, our people are not interested in unemployment benefits. they are interested in a job. that's what they want. that's what they had. and we have continued to take actions for the last 2 1/2 years since our friends across the aisle have been in the majority to place more and more of our energy off limits, to make it more expensive. i also have plants in my district that use natural gas as feedstock. feedstock meaning the natural

gas is an absolutely the most essential element to producing the things that they do like plastics and other materials. and natural gas under this cap and trade bill will naturally skyrocket. our democrat majority leadership is pushing to regulate and tax hydraulic fracking, which will make much of the case we are currently getting unavailable and will shove those pricings even higher -- prices even higher. i lost around 900 jobs in my district when the paper mill closed because natural gas was more expensive here in the united states than it was virtually anywhere else. and it was a canadian company. they held on to the property hoping that one day they could reopen it, get back those 900 good jobs. but eventually have announced

they will not be reopening the plant. that was the price of natural gas that did that. so i know with the job fair i got coming up in longview, i'm -- we have over 60 employers there that will be offering jobs. we had over 600 people show up looking for jobs at the job fair in lufkin and i'm hoping it will go rell. but i've read enough of this bill and i know enough about the energy industry because we produce a lot of it in east texas. we've got coal, we got oil, we got gas. solar, wind. but this bill is going to put a lot of people out of work. it's going to put people out of work. all over the country. so the job fairs are not going to be adequate for the damage that this bill is going to do. i have been joined by colleagues here on the floor

who i think are as heartbroken as i am. and you'd think we would be giddy. that our friends across the aisle have passed a bill that's going to come back and haunt them. it's going to cost jobs. it's going to make americans mad. but i'm nothing but brokenhearted because i know what this will do to individuals and i know that my friend, mr. souder, likewise is affected. i'd like to yield such time as he may use. mr. souder: i appreciate the honor of being an honorary texan here tonight because in indiana we are still unusual. we still make things. we don't have the mountains like they have out west or beaches. what we have are hardworking americans who are still competing worldwide in manufacturing. if you go into any of the types of plants. i was talking about our steel mills, another -- in addition to the two, huge mini mills

with recycled steel, everything they use they recycle and use recycled materials. i have a steel mill, one of the interesting things they do is they built an additional facility because they are the number one provider of steel to the refinery industry in texas, in louisiana. so my district we are making the things still in america, your options are basically korea brazil, china, or indiana steel in many of these cases. but these factories take an incredible amount of energy that some our factories, we have 85% coal, 15% nuclear and our basic provision of things in that basically this bill doesn't like things that we can use in indiana. doesn't like coal. they don't really -- aren't too fond of nuclear. i think a lot of the question of what to do with waste, i used to think it was driven by jane fonda and "the china syndrome" movie.

that's old people. the younger people are thinking of simpson coming in and blowing up the city of springfield and think of that as nuclear energy. there's 13, 15, or more plants on the drawing board right now. it may take 20 years. what do i do if i don't have coal? i could use gas and oil. those are kind of bad. we tried to get the refinery done in indiana to handle canadian tar sands. another one over by detroit. they are going to be tied up for 10, 15 years. they were half of e.p.a. discharge. rahm emanuel and others are going we can't build that refinery. we don't want any in america. what are we -- i make 58% of the r.v.'s. what are you going to do put a little fan on the roof? international designs 800 people design the big trucks in my district. how are we going to deliver goods to market? the rail is already jammed. the canals are jammed. rivers are jammed. if we can't use trucks, which take up about 40% of the energy on our roads, how are we