For the debate on Boxer-Lieberman-Warner, Daniel J. Weiss, Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress, has written a debunking of standard attack lines on climate action. Here are the myths he takes on:

  1. Binding emissions reductions before 2020 are too swift, and should not be imposed until the technology to remove carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants is commercially available.
  2. Global warming reductions will drive oil and gasoline prices even higher.
  3. Global warming reductions will decimate families’ budgets.
  4. Global warming reductions will send American jobs overseas to countries that do not reduce their emissions.
  5. The Climate Security Act will wreck the economy.
  6. Clean energy jobs will cost workers in fossil fuel industries their jobs.
  7. Global warming solutions will hurt the poor.
  8. The Climate Security Act will bankrupt American industry unless we hand out lots of free pollution permits.
  9. Steep reductions in greenhouse gases cannot occur without a significant increase in subsidies for nuclear power.
  10. Economic analyses by industry groups show that the Climate Security Act is unaffordable, will lead to huge electricity rate hikes, and cost jobs.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.