25 Jan 2010 ACORN Funding in Cap-and-Trade Bills?

Caroline May

Policy Analyst Caroline May has an op-ed about funding for ACORN being in cap-and-trade legislation in a dozen papers nationally this week.

An excerpt from the piece as printed in the Providence Journal:

…ACORN could receive a windfall should the cap-and-trade legislation now making its way through the Senate eventually become law.

In June, the U.S. House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act — better known as Waxman-Markey for its sponsors, Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts — ostensibly to alleviate global warming by mandating an 83 percent reduction in U.S. carbon emissions by 2050.

A similar bill, introduced in the Senate by Barbara Boxer of California and John Kerry of Massachusetts, has been approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Buried in both bills are provisions that would allocate vast amounts of federal money to community development organizations such as ACORN.

Members of Congress who played to public outrage by vociferously objecting to ACORN’s abuses may now want to take the time to read some of the more obscure provisions of the proposed climate bills.

Section 264 in the Waxman-Markey bill provides up to $300 million in funding for “community development organizations” so they can assist businesses and others in low-income neighborhoods with “conservation strategies, supplies and methods to improve energy efficiency.”

Stephen Spruiell and Kevin Williamson, writing in The National Review, help put this funding in perspective: “Think federally subsidized consultants paid $55 an hour to tell businesses to turn down their AC in the summer.”

The Kerry-Boxer bill contains similar language…

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Labels: Climate, Environment, Government Spending