Cap & Trade: The Final Nail In The Coffin

Cap and Trade, Cap and Tax, the Energy Bill, Waxman-Markey – doesn’t matter what you call it, the bill will cost you, infinitely. (The Wall Street Journal has more)

This is, in basic terms, how Cap and Trade will work.  The government (sounds bad already) sets a “cap” on the total amount of carbon that can be used across the US.  Companies then buy or sell permits to emit CO2. Over time, that “cap” gets ratcheted down in an attempt to reduce US carbon emissions.  In other words – the government wants to make energy more expensive so you use less.  Turn off the air-conditioner, and shut off the lights – ready to be Amish?

Cap and Trade is leaning on the assumption that carbon is enemy #1 to the environment, and that all the  Al Gore hysterics – the ones who believe oceans will boil if we don’t shut off our big screen TV’s (Al Gore’s not included) – will support such a measure.  This, however, is still up for debate among scientists.

But to hell with science, in what would seem like an attempt to bolster support for the bill, the CBO has announced that this legislation would cost the average household a paltry  $175 a year by 2020.  Remember, this is the same CBO that said Obamacare would actually be deficit neutral – which we now know to be false.  The problem?  “ [the]CBO’s analysis looks solely at the year 2020, before most of the tough restrictions kick in. As the cap is tightened and companies are stripped of initial opportunities to “offset” their emissions, the price of permits will skyrocket beyond the CBO estimate of $28 per ton of carbon. The corporate costs of buying these expensive permits will be passed to consumers”.

As does ANY regulation.  The companies aren’t going to foot the extra cost just to be nice.  They are in BUSINESS after all.

“These higher prices will show up not just in electricity bills or at the gas station but in every manufactured good, from food to cars. Consumers will cut back on spending, which in turn will cut back on production, which results in fewer jobs created or higher unemployment. Some companies will instead move their operations overseas, with the same result.”

That’s darn right.  It’s the way business and supply and demand work.  A concept completely missed by old rat-face Waxman and his disciples in Congress.

Incidentally, the Heritage Foundation did their own study of the Cap and Trade bill.  What did they find it would cost people? “[they] found Waxman-Markey would cost the economy $161 billion in 2020, which is $1,870 for a family of four. As the bill’s restrictions kick in, that number rises to $6,800 for a family of four by 2035.” Hmm, big disparity there.  The CBO might want to consider estimating costs AFTER the ratcheting down of restrictions, and not using the first years “cap” in their figures.  It’s all just a lot of bogus numbers and faulty computer models once again.

And since I am sure when the GOP attempt to quash this nonsensical bill, and Obama accuses them of once again being “partisan” with “no solutions of their own proposed” – in an effort to be bipartisan, the GOP did layout a plan in which Cap and Trade might work to the benefit of the middle class and the US economy, a pressure gauge measure, if you will.

“Even as Democrats have promised that this cap-and-trade legislation won’t pinch wallets, behind the scenes they’ve acknowledged the energy price tsunami that is coming. During the brief few days in which the bill was debated in the House Energy Committee, Republicans offered three amendments: one to suspend the program if gas hit $5 a gallon; one to suspend the program if electricity prices rose 10% over 2009; and one to suspend the program if unemployment rates hit 15%. Democrats defeated all of them.”

Did you catch that?  The GOP offered three separate, common sense, economic pressure relief systems to  Cap and Tax – and the democrats said no to each and every one of them. So I ask you, who is being “partisan”?

For comparative purposes, the Brits have enacted similar legislation in England – how’s that going? “Britain’s Taxpayer Alliance estimates the average family there is paying nearly $1,300 a year in green taxes for carbon-cutting programs in effect only a few years”

This is change we don’t want, don’t need and cannot afford.  Call your representatives and BEG them to vote NO to Cap and Tax. In fact, DEMAND it.

Otherwise, I hear Teepees are on sale, cheap.