Reps. Virginia Foxx and Patrick McHenry may have been on the losing side of last week’s biggest vote in the U.S. House.

    But we believe they were on the right side when they voted against a bill proponents tout as a plan to curb pollution related to global warming and accelerate the production of cleaner alternative energy.

    The bill passed – largely along partisan lines – with 219 House members supporting the plan and 212 opposed.

    Both Foxx and McHenry, who represent Iredell County, said the administration’s cap-and-trade plan would be burdensome to their constituents during these difficult times.

    “North Carolina families and businesses can’t afford this financial strain of high energy costs in this bill,” Foxx said.  “We should be working to ensure taxpayers are less burdened by taxes and red tape – not more.”

    McHenry was even more blunt in his criticism of the energy bill.

    “For this congress to cut jobs and raise energy costs on working families at a time like this truly boggles the mind,” he said in a statement.

    “The economy is shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs every month and families are struggling to pay their bills.  So I fail to see the wisdom in eliminating 88,000 jobs in North Carolina alone, raising energy prices by $1,400 annually on every household, and hiking gasoline prices by 77 cents per gallon.  For what?  So we can possibly lower the Earth’s temperature by two-tenths of a degree by the end of the century.”

    We applaud the administration for working to protect the environment.  And a plan that reduces our dependence on foreign oil can’t be all bad either.

    But the timing of this dramatic policy shift is troubling.  American families are struggling.  The unemployment rate in Iredell County has surpassed 12 percent and many people who have jobs are worried that they are next.

    Now is not the time to implement sweeping changes that will force families to pay more for gasoline and electricity.

    We are hopeful that a majority of the U.S. Senate will embrace the views espoused by Iredell’s representatives.