The point was to allow Democrats to put their names on a “jobs bill” before heading home for the holidays to their increasingly disappointed constituents. But many of those same Democrats are taking a detour through Denmark, and their constituents deserve to know that their work there is all about killing jobs, not creating them. (NPR)

The Congressional Budget Office and the Energy Information Administration say the cap and trade bill, passed by the House and awaiting Senate approval, will lead to more job loss.  The bill virtually admits this by adding a subsidizing clause to aid those “hardest hit,” which of course, would be the industries producing the most carbon emissions.  Globally, such provisions are what world leaders at Copenhagen were understandably upset about (i.e. that first world nations would create loopholes in legislation).

The bill includes a tacit admission that it would be a job-killer: To prevent mass layoffs, it would subsidize the industries hit hardest by higher energy costs. Refineries and utility companies would get billions of dollars’ worth of free carbon permits to offset the costs associated with capping their emissions. (NPR)

Protesters outside the Wortham Center before the Nancy Pelosi event June 12, 2009. (www.flickr.com)

Between the recently passed healthcare reform bill (in the House) and the cap-and-trade bill (HR 2454, House passed June 2009), I really hope the Senate takes their time with the hefty legislation on their agenda, and that’s a rare thing for me to hope.  Both of these policies will overtax the poor; indirectly, it may be argued, but they will feel the tax nonetheless.

“This historic legislation is the product of months of consensus building to achieve an effective and affordable transition to a clean energy future,” Pelosi says, who supported and voted for the bill.  The bill is nearly 1,500 pages and was part of a global effort to regulate industry.  As usual, I should offer this disclaimer: no one likes pollution, we all wish to address the issue.  The solutions provided however disrupt our freedoms, to be concise, and have potentially dangerous ulterior motives.

The following is taken from the Senate Republican Policy Committee website entitled:

Pelosi’s Cap-and-Trade Energy Tax:
Skyrocketing Costs, Disappearing Jobs, Struggling Economy
All for Nothing?

Skyrocketing Costs to Families and Farms
• Under Obama and Pelosi’s proposed energy tax – known as “cap and trade” – every American
family would pay more when they turn on the lights, set their thermostat, or fill up with gasoline.
• As a candidate for president, then-Senator Obama admitted, “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade
system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”1
• Since energy is used to make and provide other goods and services, Americans would see higher
costs across the board. Recent studies show that these “indirect” energy costs are nearly as high
as “direct” energy costs of gasoline, electricity, and home heating fuel.2 The director of the
Congressional Budget Office testified it was unlikely any product’s price would stay the same.3
• In testimony before Congress in April 2008 Peter Orszag said: “Under a cap-and-trade program,
firms would not ultimately bear most of the costs of the allowances but instead would pass them
along to their customers in the form of higher prices…price increases would be essential to the
success of a cap and trade program.”4
• The CBO has projected that gross costs of compliance would go up an average of $890 per
household (some will go up by $1,380) in 2020, one of the lowest cost years in the program.5
And that figure did not include any costs from a slowing economy or transition costs.
• A report by the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute found that a typical 1,900 acre
corn, soybean and wheat farm in Missouri could see increased costs of $11,649 in 2015 and
$30,152 in 2050.6
Bottom line: Skyrocketing costs of energy and everything else due to cap-and-trade.

Read the rest here; job loss, struggling economy and environmental issues…