Baltimore Examiner: NY-13 Grimm and Allegretti spar over Cap-and-Trade

Excerpts from the Baltimore Examiner:

Michael Grimm and Michael Allegretti, candidates for the GOP nomination for Congress in the [NY] 13th CD (Staten Island/Bklyn), have found an issue they clear-cut, flat-out disagree on: Cap and Trade.

Michael Grimm opposes the current legislation and has announced he has signed the Americans for Prosperity (AFP-MO) ‘No Climate Tax Pledge.’

“The American people are taxed too much already, and now the federal government wants to impose yet another tax. I strongly oppose any legislation concerning climate change that will result in a net increase in government revenue,” he said recently.

Mr. Grimm pointed out that his opponent in the GOP primary was in favor of the bill.

“By contrast, upon the passage of the Waxman-Markey bill, Michael Allegretti, a Washington lobbyist, went as far as calling it ‘a major step for US domestic climate action.’” he stated, in a recent press release.

“It was a major step, but in the wrong direction,” Mr. Grimm added. “The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has scored the House plan as an $846 billion increase in federal revenue, which will weigh heavily on the American people already struggling to keep their heads above water.”

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The ‘No Climate Tax Pledge’ Mr. Grimm has signed states he will oppose any climate change legislation that contains a net increase in federal, state, or local revenue.

Americans for Prosperity has circulated the pledge to federal, state, and local officials.

About 274 lawmakers and candidates, primarily Republicans, have signed the pledge, according to Wikipedia–prominent pledge signers include Senators Pat Roberts and Roger Wicker; US Representatives Michelle Bachmann, John Carter, Jeff Flake, Jim Jordan, Doug Lamborn, Lynn Westmoreland, Phil Gingrey, and Tom Price; and candidates Jack Hoogendyk, Pete Olson, and Greg Davis.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a Washington-based conservative political advocacy group which advocates for limited government and free markets on the local, state and federal levels, according to Wikipedia– it was founded in 2004 by billionaire David H. Koch of Koch Industries.

Democratic incumbent Michael McMahon, who will face either Micael Grimm or Michael Allegretti in November, voted in favor of the Cap and Trade bill (Clean Energy Security Act of 2009) which narrowly passed the House by a vote of 219-212.

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