(April 11, 2008 ) – Like I was sayin… somebody has to pay for it. I like to believe that I am at least a little green. I do my part by recycling, watching water consumption, etc… I’ll even by an alternative fuel vehicle as soon as they are comparable with gasoline powered vehicles in both performance and price.
Most Americans support legislation to help the environment, but many don’t understand the impact to them personally.
There is been a lot of press recently about the “America’s Climate Security Act of 2007″ (S. 2101)introduced by Lieberman (I-CT) and Warner (R-VA). The bill sounds sensible enough. It seeks to combat global warming (more on that later) by instituting a cap and trade system. Under a cap and trade system, caps for the maximum amount of CO2 are set. Companies producing less than a certain amount can sell their excess to companies producing over the cap. There are also fines for producing over the cap or the cap plus what you have purchased. The idea is that it incents companies to reduce emissions.
One of the drawbacks that most people don’t understand is that companies that pay extra fees, fines, or taxes just don’t turn on their printing presses to pay the extra money, they pass the cost on to the consumer. One of the impacts of the bill will be to raise the cost of energy which will be paid directly or indirectly by the American people.
A recent article by Allison Kasic highlights some of the impacts to the American economy:
- Gross Domestic Product would be reduced by $151 billion to $210 billion by 2020 and between $631 billion to $669 billion per year in 2030.
- Americans would lose 1.2 million to 1.8 million jobs in 2020 and 3 million to 4 million jobs in 2030.
- Household income would be reduced by $739 to $2,927 per year in 2020 and $4,022 to $6,752 per year in 2030.
- Electricity prices would increase by 28% to 33% by 2020 and 101% to 129% by 2030, and gasoline prices would increase 20% to 69% by 2020 and 77% to 145% by 2030.
The household impact is from the direct cost of energy rising. Do American’s really support paying an extra $700 to $3000 a year to support this bill? How many people actually know that what this bill means to them?
Another cost will be passed on the the American tax payer. The bill itself is carving out over $845 billion to help low income Americans pay energy bills and to subsidize alternative energy.
Some argue that the cost is worth it to stop global warming. However, in order to accept that you first have to accept that man is causing global warming. The fact that humans are responsible for only 3% of the the total CO2 emissions passes right by folks and you won’t see the global warming alarmists pointing it out anytime soon either. The other 97% comes from nature. People also ignore the fact that the earth has been cooling for the last 10 years.
There is no doubt that we should act in a responsible way where the environment is concerned. However, knee-jerk political gestures that destroy the American economy are no way to go about it.
