Waxman-Markey Just Doesn’t Add Up
Posted August 4th, 2009 at 10:22am in Energy and Environment 
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The Waxman-Markey climate change bill, a 1,427-page special-interest wish list, was put together in such a rush that the numbers don’t add up. Sum the percentage of emissions allowances to various special interests in the years 2016 and 2017 and (surprise, surprise) you get a value greater than one hundred. That’s right—the bill allocates nearly a billion dollars worth of allowances over and above the emissions “cap” set for those respective years.
Waxman-Markey doles out emissions allowances to special interests ranging from the natural gas industry to the auto industry. Even tropical rainforests made the list. Electric utilities were the big winners, receiving 43.75 percent of the allowances in 2012 and 2013. Petroleum refiners didn’t fare as well, receiving only 2.25 percent of the emissions allowances from 2014-2026. Evidently, not all special interests are created equal.
The discrepancy in allowance distributions makes a person wonder what the criteria were for allocating the free allowances. It’s a question that deserves an answer.
The allowance oversight is yet another glaring example of the bill’s inability to deliver what its proponents promise. Proponents say it will create jobs; the disastrous economies of Spain and California prove otherwise. Proponents say it will increase productivity; The Brookings Institute predicts a 2.5 percent decline in GDP by 2050. Proponents say it will significantly reduce global temperature; the World Climate Report suggests it would only reduce global temperatures between one and two-tenths of one degree Celsius IF the rest of the world makes equal emissions reductions. Proponents say it will reduce global emissions; China and India are trying to contain their laughter.
In their haste to satisfy time constraints and an aggressive liberal agenda, Democratic House staffers (sleep-deprived and heavily caffeinated, no doubt) threw together a bill that just doesn’t add up—leaving some companies with a golden egg, and others with a giant lump of (clean) coal.
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5 Responses to “Waxman-Markey Just Doesn’t Add Up”
James Murphy Napa, CA on August 4th, 2009 at 10:22am said:
It is too bad that the American Public has awakened to the stupidity of the American Socialist Party (doing business as “Democratic Party”) too late to stop high unemployment, taxes and inflation. Between the Socialists and the statists in the Republican Party there seems that we are entering a period of soft to hard tyranny.
Obama will stay the course and do what ever he can to subdue the freedoms that we once enjoyed. Elitists are not necessarily the best thinkers or leaders.
fiftyfifty on August 4th, 2009 at 10:22am said:
Waxman – Markey cap and trade this is the payoff for congressman and there buddys to invest there money in global warming get richer myoff was a litewight compared to waxman
Jim on August 4th, 2009 at 10:22am said:
WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!!! THIS TAX WILL DOUBLE
YOUR HEATING AND ELECTRIC BILL !!!! WILL THAT
HURT YOU OR NOT ?????
Orlando, Jacksonville on August 4th, 2009 at 10:22am said:
This was so interesting. It is amazing just how feverishly they are working and how quickly they are ruining the country.
matthew, queens ny on August 4th, 2009 at 10:22am said:
In the long run I don’t believe this bill will get out of the Senate. This bill will kill the economy. However, it is scary how close we are to coming to having laws passed that years ago would have been dismissed as extreme. I also believe this bill in the long run will hurt the environmental movement. The american people will react to this when they understand the cost to them. Someday the extremists in the environmental movement will lose clout. Otherwise, more people will stop sending these groups money to fund their operations. Global warmists are extremists. They’ve change the environmental issues from open spaces and pollution issues that do concern most people to their pet issue; the theory of manmade global warming.