Today the House will be voting on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (Waxman Markey Bill).

See my last post on my view of GHG legislation. This post is reserved to express the concept of certainty.

Vote Yes, For Certainty

I work in the energy industry and part of my work involves helping utilities make decisions. Over the last few years it is increasingly difficult for energy industry professionals to make decisions. This isn’t because of a change in culture or increasingly complicated decision making tools, but rather due to threat of drastic changes in energy legislation; most notably, the creation of a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program.

Energy industry professionals do not know when or how the government will change the rules. They are unsure about how much their coal fired power plants will be worth, or how much additional money they may receive from a nuclear plant. This complicates and distorts their ability to decide how to run their companies. So I urge congress to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, for the sake of certainty, so we can start making informed decisions again.

I realize the bill will increase the cost of doing business in the U.S., likely resulting in the loss of industries and jobs to other countries (think the production of anything energy intensive, like information infrastructure). I realize that households will have to pay more for their energy, resulting in an immediate lose in standard of living. I realize the bill is full of problems, loopholes, and special interest provisions. But for the sake of certainty, vote yes.

As a first mate to the energy industries ship I beg for the government to stop threatening us with plans on drilling massive holes in our hull. We would prefer the holes to drilled now, so we can quickly assess the damage and start making repairs. I do have one qualifier; put a provision in the bill that limits how often the law can be distorted. I prefer one set of holes be drilled.