Democrats air concerns about climate legislation

U.S. Senator Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) led a charge of moderate Democrats with concerns about clean energy and climate change legislation and its impacts on manufacturers. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, in 2008 manufacturing made up 19.5 percent of North Carolina’s economy, with an output of $78 billion and 514,000 employees. Textile industry leader Glen Raven Inc. supported Hagan’s move “to ensure that federal climate legislation will preserve and enhance our company’s ability to compete globally,” says Allen Gant, president of Glen Raven. Among those elements Hagan wanted to see in the legislation are tax incentives and low-interest loans to allow manufacturers to retool; cost containment provisions to hold down energy costs; phased in changes to a low-carbon economy; clarification of federal and state greenhouse gas standards; and measures to promote comparable action in other countries to prevent “carbon leakage.”