The Foundry

The typical hurricane does $5.13 billion worth of damage in America and strikes less than twice a year. But Hurricane J.J. is no ordinary hurricane.

If passed, the climate change bill proposed by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) would rip through the U.S. economy, leaving higher energy costs, lost jobs and falling family income in its wake.

Add it up, adjust for inflation, Heritage Foundation analyst David Kreutzer says, and economic damage wrought by Lieberman-Warner would equal that of:

• 660 hurricanes — 35 per year — for two decades.
• A hurricane every week by 2030.
• 18 times the expected toll of natural hurricanes hitting the U.S. from 2012 to 2030.

Supporters of this bill say it’s worth the price to slow global warming. But actually, capping carbon dioxide emissions as it mandates would have a negligible effect, studies show.

“At most, it would reduce the Earth’s future temperature by one- or two-tenths of a degree Celsius — too small to even verify,” Heritage noted in a recent analysis. “It’s all economic pain for no environmental gain.”

It’s time to run from this bill. Here’s how you can understand Hurricane J.J.’s severe economic threat to your state, down to the level of your congressman’s district.