Breaking Down the Costs of Waxman-Markey Global Warming Legislation
Posted June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm in Energy and Environment 
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The idea behind cap and trade is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by putting a price on the right to emit carbon and other greenhouse gases on businesses. Because fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide, cap and trade becomes a costly tax on fossil fuels and the energy they generate. Since 85 percent of America’s energy needs come from fossil fuels, cap and trade would be massive tax on energy consumption if enacted. How high a tax?
The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis found that by 2035 gasoline prices would increase 58 percent, natural gas prices would increase 55 percent, home heating oil would increase 56 percent, and worst of all, electricity prices would jump 90 percent.
But the direct tax on household energy use is just the beginning. The energy tax also hits producers. As the higher production costs ripple through the economy, the household pocketbooks get hit again and again. When all the tax impacts have been added up, the average per-family-of-four costs rise by $2,979 per year. In the year 2035 alone, the cost is $4,609. And the costs per family for the whole energy tax aggregated from 2012 to 2035 are $71,493.
But just about everything we produce uses energy. As energy prices increase, those costs will be passed onto the consumer and reflected in the higher prices we pay for products. Higher energy prices also result in a slower economy, which means less production, higher unemployment and reduced income.
• Over the 2012-2030 timeline, job losses average over 1.1 million. By 2035, a projected 2.5 million jobs are lost below the baseline (without a cap and trade bill).
• The average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) lost is $393 billion, hitting a high of $662 billion in 2035. From 2012-2035, the accumulated GDP lost is $9.4 trillion.
• The negative economic impacts accumulate, and the national debt is no exception. The increase in family-of-four debt, solely because of Waxman-Markey, hits an almost unbelievable $114,915 by 2035.
• The average of the climate tax revenue, what the government gets to spend or give away, is $236 billion from 2012 through 2035 and adds up to $5.7 trillion in tax collections.
In the name of saving our planet from “catastrophic global warming” for future generations, what we’re really doing is ensuring they live in a world with less opportunity and paying for our mistakes through increased debt, all for a change in the temperature too small to ever notice. All of these costs accrue in the first 25 years of a 90-year program that, as calculated by climatologists, will lower temperatures by only hundredths of a degree in 2050 and no more than two-tenths of a degree at the end of the century.
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14 Responses to “Breaking Down the Costs of Waxman-Markey Global Warming Legislation”
Monica from ACCCE on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
What could be greener than taking our most abundant and affordable energy resource – coal – and making it cleaner through advanced technology?
During the America’s Power Factuality Tour, we’ve been traveling around the country talking to the people who are behind the production of cleaner electricity from coal.
That’s why we stopped by Mattoon, Ill., the proposed site of FutureGen, a public-private partnership to build the world’s first near-zero emissions coal-based power plant. Citizens and legislators are continuing to work towards the original plan – and town residents are excited, too. They understand what a great boost the plant will be to the local economy – and how much the technology will mean to the rest of the world.
http://sn.im/factuality5
Paul Terry Stone on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
The idea behind Cap and Trade legislation is so impractical. At this rate, it could well become against the law to breathe and therefore emit carbon dioxide.
PDS, NC on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
Global Warming is a farce. The ONLY ones that benefit from this topic are the $$$ connected politions and the corporation selling products.
Will we all have to wear fart bags someday to catch our gas? I wonder if GE is already developing that.
Metalchemist on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
Waxman is another political weasel that just follows the party line, attempting to force the Vindictive AGENDA on America. Taxing us into oblivion to further the illegal aliens invasion of this Nation.
Waxman must go.
M.L.P. Bellingham, Washington on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
Global warming is such a hoax! What of the nine inches of hail in North Dakota in mid-June. What of the declining global temperature the past few years? Cap and Trade is all about control and money.
Richard, Spring TX on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
Two-tenths of a degree now that’s value for your tax dollar. This is the biggest tax scam to hit worlds taxpayers.
Marshall Hill MI. on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
Taxing the American Spirit into more activism against the Government! 2010!!!
Bobbi, W.Orange, NJ on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
Let me get this straight: Between 2012 and 2035, Congress will spend $9.4 trillion to take in $5.7 trillion?!? So we’re going to run a deficit, in this bill alone, of $4.3 trillion in order to “maybe” reduce global temperatures by a mere hundredth of a degree. Why is anyone with an ounce of common sense even considering this?
The Jimmy Z Show, The OC, CA on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
I’m going exhale more often, in protest, just to anger the eco-nazis.
Tim, Brentwood CA on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
This insanity has got to stop. If they can pass laws forbidding the use of a sticker that says, “Evolution is only one of many theories…” Why can’t we pass laws that will stop the distribution of “Al Gore’s Big Comic Book of Science” (each edition contains a shiny tinfoil hat)? The man may be sincere, but he’s also on the lunatic fringe when it comes to environmental science. If “Cap & Trade” passes it’s “Bye-bye” to the American way of life.
JP, Greensboro, NC on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
Call your representatives now. Do you think anyone has read the new version (introduced this Monday) that is 1200 pgs. long? Of course not. We need to stop this…but, more than that, we need to stop these crooks from throwing up a “smoke screen” like the ABC broadcast tonight on healthcare reform just so they can HURRY HURRY HURRY up the vote. (Also right before vacation.) Sneaky and dishonest, just like the bill. Just like the stimulus.
Jeanne Gresham, OR on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
We as American citizens are becoming the victims of less than honorable leaders and it seems anything that produces a buck for the higher ups is a go regardless of what it does to the rest of us. When are we going to get up in arms and do something to stop this? Like vote in some responsible leaders.
Patricia Kaufman, NYC on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
American citizens are becoming the pawns in “Big governmant insanity”.
They think the answer to everything
is to raise taxes and do not care about the “cause & effect”….the more taxes the less revenues….what has happened to our country. I’m glad my father, who fought in WW2 and taught me to love my country and defend it,
is no longer here to see what is happening.
Mark Fletcher on June 15th, 2009 at 4:24pm said:
I live in Jay Inslees’ district in WA. What do you think the odds of changing his mind are. I am going to do anything I can to defeat him in the next election. We must get the house back next year.