Cap and Trade Sentence of the Day
Posted August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm in Energy and Environment 
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In other words, the cost of a suitcase of Budweiser could make or break the country’s most ambitious environmental program.”
That’s the Wall Street Journal’s Keith Johnson discussing numbers from the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. When asked about cap and trade, 52 percent of responders supported such a program – the same as last month but down from 59 percent a year ago. More interesting, though, is how the responses change when asked how much one would be willing to pay in higher electricity bills.
When asked if a cap and trade program “significantly lowered greenhouse gases but raised your monthly electrical bill by 25 dollars a month” – then only 39 percent support cap and trade while 59 percent oppose it.
Economists at The Heritage Foundation modeled the proposed Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill that passed in the House of Representatives last June. The analysis found that over the 2012-2035 timeline, the years in which Heritage modeled the bill, electricity prices would increase $32.67 per month.
But that’s just one small chapter in the book on how an average family of four’s pocketbook would be hit. Cap and trade is a massive tax on energy across the board – so your electricity bills will rise and so will everything else – gasoline, natural gas, and home heating oil. Add it up and the family of four energy expenditures increase on average by $69 per month from 2012-2035. Because the carbon caps become more stringent in subsequent years, the costs are highest in 2035 at $103 per month in the form of direct higher energy prices.
Remember; these increases occur not only after adjusting for inflation, but also after households have adjusted as well as possible to the higher energy prices.
And that’s not even the whole story – there are indirect costs too. The energy tax also hits producers. As the higher production costs ripple through the economy, the household pocketbooks get hit again and again when producers pass costs onto the consumers. If you look at the total energy tax from Waxman-Markey, it works out to an average of $2,979 annually from 2012-2035 for a household of four. By 2035 alone, the total cost is over $4,600.
That comes to $248.25 per month, on average, for a family of four. At that price, you could replace that suitcase full of Budweiser with Grey Goose.
We’re wondering: What percentage of responders would be willing to support a cap and trade bill if they knew it would cost that much?
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21 Responses to “Cap and Trade Sentence of the Day”
Bill, San Antonio TX on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Not many. The problem is that if you do not identify it with a code word such as TAX – it goes right by most people. Call them fees, surcharges, etc., the money still comes out of our pockets.
Dan Thomas on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Don’t worry. 95% of all Americans will not see a tax hike. Yeah right!
charlie on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Does this TAXING ever end????????
George M Dunlap on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
This whole thing is a massive redistribution of wealth from the private sector to the govt.Along with the money comes the power directly to government and away from the people.A travesty.
MarkDad on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Politicized science begets Public control. The tragedy of it all remains the easy at which all this Marxist propaganda is consumed by a public made impotent by 40 plus years of public school indoctrination. Pathetic.
Bobbie Jay on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
They mix lies with the truth to confuse.
Thank you Heritage, for your honesty and your strong hold and endless focus on truth.
gofer on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
If global warming is such a serious problem, how come the U.S. can’t even break the 1934 temp. record? It was warmer during that period than today. I’m sick to my soul of this blatant hoax and mucky-mucks telling us “little people” we have to cut back and stop consuming, etc. Yeah, right. Notice who is doing all the talking, not scientists, but politicians and astronomers, like Hansen. Pachauri, head of the IPCC, is an engineer. Give me a break!
John Maresca, Wirtz, Va. on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Sounds like a “risky scheme”, compliments of Al Gore.
fc, nc on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
nothing has been said about the cost of administering the agency in charge of running this program and the corruption that will naturally go along with it. these guys are not interested in saving the environment, they could hardly care less about it. they are only interested in passing a bill that will benefit them. besides, cap and trade will reduce the projected rise in temperature by around 1 degree. who were the idiots that voted the morones into office?
Joe Kelly on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Can’t seem to get your final number of $248.25/mo…
How did you get that exactly?
Also… what’s the word “cents” in there for??
I’m totally against any “cap and trade” TAX… but I still like to get the numbers right…
Joe
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Joe-Kelly
Nick Loris on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
$2,979/12 is $248.25.
And the word “cents” should not have been in there. Thanks – Nick
Debbie, Cameron, SC on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
When I currently pay close to $300.00 a month for electricity I can’t imagine paying an additional $248. I live in the South where summers are hot and muggy. At the suggestion of our illustrious President I tried leaving my thermostat on 78 which resulted in my bread molding,fruit rotting more quickly and it being miserably hot. I would be willing to bet the President does not have his thermostat set at 78.
Cap and Trade will put a large, unnecessary burden on everyone. Not only will we be taxed for anything and everything energy related but it will cause companies to go out of business causing unemployment to increase. Seems to me the American people are caught in one big, vicious government circle. I can’t wait till 2010.
Diamond, ND on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Not me!! We have recently discovered that there is enough oil in NW ND to support U.S. demand for the next 30 years! We can be self sufficient and continue our economic dominance if we educate the voters out there to vote against gov’t control!
Dale, Cincinnati on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Most citizens have no concept of what Cap & Trade is much less how it will work or how it will impact their lives. Once educated the current storm over health care reform will look like a spring breeze compared to the informed hurricane of descent. Cap & Trade is nothing more than a hidden tax on the US population. It will move trillions of dollars from hard working tax payers pockets into the fat wallets of unionized labor. Companies will be destroyed and millions of US jobs will be lost. Nothing will be gained. It didn’t work in Europe after a decade of study and planning. It won’t work here.
Even more frightening than hidden taxation is the fact that Cap & Trade is really a communistic centralized planning wolf in global warming sheep’s clothing. Don’t read the bill and weep….read it and revolt. It’s time to throw more than tea overboard.
John Roane Sarasota, Florida on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
If you think NAFTA made a sucking sound of jobs going south, NAFTA will be only a whimper compared to Cap and Trade.
I hold stock in a large US company that already does manufacturing around the globe and if they don’t move thier US manufacturing off shore when Cap and Trade hits I will sell all my stock. I will not put up with a company that can’t read the writing on the wall.
Ken Marx, Fort Worth, Texas on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Where is nuclear generation in all of this? It rarely gets mentioned. I read that one medical study showed that people living near windmills incur various maladies due to the low frequency noise that emanates from the windmills. Let’s do more drilling and build those nuclear plants.
Lynn B. DeSpain on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Very poor analogy. Realistically we are talking about taking away from the average American family, (keep in mind the Obama poor with the free medical care will be bypassed on this one) #300.00 a year. And that is just for the first year! Combine that with States like the one I live in, Oregon, and you can add another $200.00 for the first year!
Now this comes out of what is called your “Free Money”. the left over stuff after paying all the other bills, including all the with holding taxes! Next year double it! It increases annually through 2025!
On top of all that realize that the USA pollutes the world’s atmosphere less that 2% compared to the rest of the World’s industrial nations, and they are going to do nothing! The result of what we hop to accomplish is a reduction of 20% to 30% of 2%! The result is the Bureaucrats get a hole lot of money, for very little action on their part!
This past Summer America has been putting in Prison people for running this kind of, “Con Game.” Don’t fall for it. Don’t fall into it!
Hozro
D.T. Pitts Md. on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Carbon Credits are the new Credit Default Swap. A vast new business instrument destined to make many powerful unseen people very rich.
Barb in Nebraska on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Totally against Cap and Trade. We won’t come out ahead no matter how they try to spin it. Like everyone is saying, there will be a very few people who are set to make a lot of money if this goes through. And why aren’t we building nuclear plants? Europe is building them like crazy. But then they probably have to, since they spent all their money on a health care program that doesn’t work. There isn’t any money left to tax energy.
Fran Lannom, St. Louis, MO on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Have any of these bureaucrats looked at the world history books? Global warming is a cyclical phenomenon and all the legislation in the world will not alter that cycle! Meanwhile, we, the taxpayers are left holding the bag.
Bill, CO on August 31st, 2009 at 12:19pm said:
Not only will this bill increase taxes, it will also cost jobs. Let your opinion be heard at http://dontcapandtradeourjobs.net/?soc=tmtwt.