Cap and Trade Bill

In a recent commentary, I cited a poll that found that only one-quarter of likely voters correctly understand the term “cap and trade.” Obviously, most Americans need to understand what the term means since it is likely to cost them thousands of dollars each year.

Now that the bill has been moving through the legislative process, Americans need to know a whole lot more. The bill by Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) deserves more scrutiny than it is getting. Apparently Representative Waxman wrote most of the bill in secret and then skipped the usually subcommittee process. Later on he added nearly 300 pages of additional legislation just before the first committee meeting on the bill.

Everyone (both opponents and proponents) admit that it will increase energy costs. How much has been a subject of intense debate. I am noticing that many think tanks and members of Congress believe it would increase energy costs by $3,000 per household. One research study estimated what the costs from the bill would be by 2035. It estimates that the bill would push gasoline prices 74 percent higher and electricity costs 90 percent higher than they otherwise would be.

Increasing costs would be one impact of the bill. Decreasing jobs would be another. Rapidly developing countries like China and India would not be under these regulations. Jobs and businesses would migrate to those countries as they enjoyed expanding economies without such crippling regulations.
Americans might be for the bill if they were convinced that it would have any appreciable impact on climate change. It won’t. A recent study found that if greenhouse gases are reduced 83 percent by the year 2050 as mandated in the bill, it would only lower global temperatures by nine hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit.

Those are just a few of the facts that every American should know. There are certainly others that should be discussed and debated. The problem is that most Americans do not understand what cap and trade would do. They better learn soon before they their energy bills increase. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.