ACC Applauds Senator Brown, Eight Colleagues for Letter to Senators Kerry, Graham and Lieberman
PR Newswire – ARLINGTON, Va., April 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Today Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and eight other Senators wrote to Senators Kerry (D-MA), Graham (R-SC) and Lieberman (ID-CT) expressing their belief in the need for clean energy legislation to maintain U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and jobs as it reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The letter describes key provisions for a manufacturing package in clean energy legislation. In addition to Senator Brown, signatories included Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Carl Levin (D-MI), Robert Casey (D-PA), Arlen Specter (D-PA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Kay Hagan (D-NC).
The chemistry industry provides some of the most widely-used products and technologies for energy efficiency and renewable energy, including solar and wind power, building insulation, lightweight vehicle parts, compact fluorescent light bulbs, lithium-ion batteries, energy-efficient appliances, automotive and industrial lubricants, and many others while employing nearly 850,000 Americans and supporting 4.6 million U.S. jobs.
American Chemistry Council (ACC) President and CEO Cal Dooley issued the following statement:
"We applaud Senator Brown and his colleagues for their steadfast efforts to ensure that clean energy legislation recognizes the global competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing as a priority for our economic and national security. They have described a number of important provisions needed to avoid the loss of good American manufacturing jobs and the 'leakage' of greenhouse gas emissions from the United States to other, more carbon-intensive nations, which would result in higher net global emissions.
"We agree with the Senators that safeguarding American jobs and our manufacturing competitiveness requires a variety of measures to promote manufacturing investment, contain the costs of policies, and implement a robust transition assistance program for U.S. manufacturing until there is a level international playing field. We strongly support the Senators' call for energy-intensive manufacturing sectors like the business of chemistry to obtain assistance in keeping energy costs low, and to preserve jobs, investment and our competitive position by full funding of transition assistance.
