The Foundry

Thanks to the relentless work of Christopher Horner at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, U.S. Department of Treasury admitted cap and trade would be a tax that could generate revenue between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. Horner obtained the information from the Treasury by using the Freedom of Information Act. Horner says,

These are candid, internal discussions of what they are telling each other and what they won’t tell you. The words cap and trade were chosen for a reason, and that is to avoid a vote on tax. This memo tells you it’s a tax. Why else are they discussing hundreds of billions of revenue to be taken from the taxpayer?”

The energy tax amounts to $1,761 a year for families – “the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent” as stated by Declan McCullagh of CBSNews. Horner writes that the Treasury memo offers much more, including:

the admission that cap-and-trade would cause the loss of steel, paper, aluminum, chemical, and cement manufacturing jobs which, as happened under Europe’s scheme, tend to export themselves to saner environments. Windfall profits under the scheme of allocating the ration coupons, the Waxman-Markey approach, are also admitted to.”

These admissions are akin to our economic analysis of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill where we found:

• Higher energy and other costs for a household of four averaging nearly $3,000 per year between 2012 and 2035.
• Cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) losses are $9.4 trillion for the same time period;
• Single-year GDP losses reach $400 billion by 2025 and will ultimately exceed $700 billion;
• Net job losses approach 1.9 million in 2012 and could approach 2.5 million by 2035. Manufacturing loses 1.4 million jobs in 2035;
• A typical family of four will pay, on average, an additional $829 each year for energy-based utility costs; and
• Gasoline prices will rise by 58 percent ($1.38 more per gallon) and average household electric rates will increase by 90 percent.

And according to climatologists, all of these costs will be paid for no more than a 0.2 degree (Celsius) moderation in world temperature increases by 2100, and no more than a 0.05 degree reduction by 2050.

“Heritage is saying publicly what the administration is saying to itself privately,” says Horner.