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By Warren Watkins The Daily Citizen An anti-regulation speech by an Arkansas oil company executive morphed into an informal debate on the issue when a U.S. Congressman showed up at the event. Claiborne P. Deming, retired president and chief executive officer and current executive committee chairman of Murphy Oil in El Dorado spoke to the Economics Club of the Searcy Regional Chamber of Commerce Monday at noon, Deming took a strong stance against the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade Bill currently awaiting a vote in the U.S. Senate. “I don’t think this bill is about climate change,” Deming told the audience of over 200 including many of the area’s bankers. “It’s about a Draconian lifestyle change which is being imposed on America by interests on the East and West Coasts.” Jim House, chairman of the chamber’s board of directors, asked for questions from the audience after Deming’s remarks, prompting several, which Deming answered. During a pause, Congressman Vic Snyder, who had been introduced by House earlier in the meeting, rose and spoke. “We’re not smart enough to be as sinister as you present,” Snyder told Deming, noting he had heard Deming had been speaking on the Cap and Trade Bill around the state recently. Snyder said he had heard Deming was to address the luncheon at Harding University’s Heritage Center and came to listen. A staff member said Snyder, who usually returns to Washington on Monday mornings, planned to return Tuesday this week. The Cap and Trade Bill is a complicated and important issue, Snyder said, while countering several of Deming’s points made during the presentation. Beginning with the premise that energy use will continue to grow, Deming used statistics displayed with a PowerPoint presentation to show that coal, oil and natural gas accounted for 85 percent of the nation’s energy sources. Yet, Deming claimed, the coal industry is being given special treatment in the bill because unions representing coal miners helped elect President Barack Obama, showing the political motivation of the bill. “Coal, the most carbon-intensive of all the fuels, gets a free ride for 10 years,” Deming said of the proposal. Calling it the “Cap and Tax Bill,” Deming said the Waxman-Markey proposal will promote a cycle that will raise the cost of production of energy which will be passed on to consumers. “Waxman-Markey does not spread carbon costs evenly throughout the U.S. economy,” Deming said, noting that Arkansans will “have to stop driving in May” of each year because the carbon allocations for the state will have been met in that month. With China’s carbon dioxide emissions now outpacing those of the U.S., Deming said, the bill’s regulations are not conditioned on the participation of the developing world. The proposed bill does not promote use of natural gas, Deming maintained, and will add additional costs to the national economy while not impacting the problem. Better solutions than the Waxman-Markey proposal would include incentives to buying diesel-engine cars, which he said are cleaner than gas-burning cars, and encouraging a gradual lifestyle change for Americans, Deming said. When asked after the meeting what lifestyle change he could present from his own life, Deming replied. “My wife has driven a Lexus SUV for 10 years and we’re looking at a diesel SUV,” Deming said. Deming remarked that incentives should be offered to build nuclear power plants, drawing a response later from Snyder. “Exxon, the national’s largest producer of nuclear energy, and Entergy, the nation’s second-largest producer, support the bill,” Snyder maintained while the two conducted a brief and police interaction before the group. After the meeting adjourned, Deming and Snyder spoke for several more minutes while a handful of participants listened. |
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