The House of Representatives is currently considering the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 -- “cap-and-trade” energy legislation that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by giving the federal government the power to limit the amount of oil, gasoline, coal, and other fossil fuels used by American utilities and industry.
In reality, this cap-and-trade plan is nothing more than a hidden tax that The Heritage Foundation has estimated could increase the average American family’s energy bill by $1,500 annually along with raising taxes on the average family $3100 a year!
Introduced by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), the so-called Waxman-Markey bill will place a severe regulatory burden on American businesses, which will increase their costs and reduce their competitiveness, hurting our nation’s economy.
These higher operating costs for utilities, oil companies, and industry will ultimately trickle down to individual Americans, and you will pay an estimated 74 percent more for gasoline, 90 percent more for electricity, and 55 percent more on your natural gas bill. And that’s not the end of it. You’ll also pay more for every product that requires fossil fuels in its manufacture or transportation! You won't be able to tune up your car or install a grill in your back yard without federal interference ... perhaps even a costly environmental impact study.
* The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis determined that Waxman-Markey would reduce aggregate GDP by $7.4 trillion, kill 844,000 jobs and raise the energy bill paid by a typical family by about $1,500 annually.
* A study by the National Association of Manufacturers projected that emissions caps, similar to those previously rejected by the U.S. Senate calling for a 63% cut in emissions by 2050, would reduce GDP by up to $269 billion and cost 850,000 jobs.
* A study conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology determined the restrictions could raise gasoline prices by 29%, electricity prices by 55% and natural gas prices by 15% by 2015. They also estimate a loss of up to 855,000 jobs.
* A 2007 report by the Congressional Budget Office examining the costs of cutting carbon emissions just 15% noted that customers "would face persistently higher prices for products such as electricity and gasoline. Those price increases would be regressive in that poorer households would bear a larger burden relative to their income than wealthier households would."
The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade plan will also grow the size and cost of government by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a greenhouse gas (GHG) registry, create a GHG emission allowance transfer system, and set emission allowances from 2012-2050. This army of new bureaucrats will eventually control every aspect of industrial, commercial, and individual energy use. What’s more, the cap-and-trade program will necessarily be ripe for political favoritism and corruption, as politicians and bureaucrats manipulate the system for favored industries.
Climatologist Chip Knappenberger has estimated that the 83 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions mandated under Waxman-Markey by 2050 will result in a drop in climate temperature of only nine-hundredths of 1 degree Fahrenheit. That’s equivalent to just two years of avoided global warming.
In short, the Waxman-Markey bill will achieve virtually no environmental pay-offs, while imposing huge costs on our businesses, our economy, and each and every American as a taxpayer and consumer.
Now be honest. Look at your paycheck, if you are still receiving one and tell me something. Can you afford this? I know with raising a son and making a housepayment I sure cannot. Come winter, I definitely won't be able to make any ends meet.
Congress and the Senate will vote themselves raises again, but I cannot do that. Nor can the rest of the non-government people. With all the other new taxes coming down the road for the Health Care BS (3% Income tax increase for those making more than 30K AND a potential Federal Sales Tax on EVERYTHING) how much more can a person stand?
Yep, CHANGE we can believe in.