Failure of Cap and Trade wards off loss of 1.9 million US jobs
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 9:38AM 
Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has announced he can’t get the votes to pass a Cap and Trade bill that would cap carbon emissions and permit the trade of carbon permits. Republicans as well as Democrats from Southern and Western states weren’t buying the idea of legislating policy that would cause consumers to pay those “skyrocketing” prices for electricity President Barack Obama expressed a wish for during his campaign.
The American Council for Capital Formation and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council undertook a comprehensive study of the latest approach, the Kerry-Lieberman ‘American Power Act.’ The study found that as many as 1.9 million jobs could ultimately be lost if that legislation had passed.
Other worrisome findings include:
• A cumulative loss in US GDP of up to $2.1 trillion
• Residential electricity price increases of up to 42 percent
• Gas increases per gallon of up to 18 percent.
An official statement from ACCF and SBE said, “The study, which was conducted by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) using input assumptions provided by the ACCF and the SBE Council, assesses the impact of the Kerry-Lieberman Bill on manufacturing, jobs, energy prices and the overall U.S. economy. The ACCF and SBE Council released national data and will include state-specific analyses for all 50 U.S. states in the coming days. These study results reflect a combination of the Kerry-Lieberman provisions and ACCF assumptions about future electricity generation technology availability.”
Dr. Margo Thorning, senior vice president and chief economist for ACCF, said “The analysis shows strong negative impacts from the American Power Act on economic and job growth and severe impacts on manufacturing given our assumptions about the potential deployment of future generation technology. This is exactly the wrong prescription to restore the vitality of the U.S. economy.”
The US Report participated in a conference call with ACCF and SBE on Wednesday. TUSR asked if Cap and Trade wasn’t in fact a method for redistributing US wealth abroad, since countries like China and India refuse to cap carbon. It came as no surprise that I was right—for one thing, the US would be purchasing emissions allowances abroad.
Developing countries see those purchases as an easy way to quick riches, at least for those in charge of the government in those countries. Ironically, some third world countries do irrevocable harm to the environment. One example is the illicit charcoal trade in Somalia. That trade is increasing desertification at an alarming rate.
In addition, China, India, North Africa and Eastern Europe’s emerging economies would realize a definite competitive advantage over the U.S.
The U.S., by the way, is already at a competitive disadvantage in the international market.
Despite the downturn for cap and trade legislation, the specter of various bills like the American Power Act is still having an impact on the economy. For one thing, the US has rolled billions and billions of dollars into energy research, technology and subsidies, dating to the 1970s when global warming alarmist Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) took office. And utilities in cities like Jacksonville (Fla.) are already announcing price increases in anticipation of whatever the Environmental Protection Agency decides to do.
The EPA was handed unprecedented power by the Supreme Court who agreed that carbon dioxide is a pollutant—that legislation from the bench completely bypassed Congress.
When hearings were held in April, 2009, predictably former vice-president Al Gore testified before Congress. But Waxman and his fellows refused to permit testimony from a top expert who disagreed with Gore’s version of global warming.
Waxman’s attitude during that hearing should have given every US citizen chills because his approach was straight out of a totalitarian government rule book—that you have to use “threats” to incentivize Americans. What Waxman and his Democrats would be incentivizing would be convincing us that paying outrageous amounts for home energy is acceptable.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s amazing response to Waxman during that hearing was one of the most underreported events in US politics.
The EPA no longer calls the alarmist scenario global warming. They now call it climate change, a phenomenon that was not only necessary for the evolution of the Earth, but one that has been around since the creation of the planet. Meanwhile the green corporate assault by financiers like Gore has undermined awareness of the need for wise conservation and protection of natural habitats.
Global warming/climate change alarmists tend to blame Republicans for Democrats’ failure to pass cap and trade. In that regard, the US should be thanking the GOP and common-sense Democrats for helping to ward off the loss of almost 2 million American jobs, a harsh blow to Main Street budgets and the hair-raising loss of up to $2.1 trillion in the US GDP. (Commentary by Kay B. Day)