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 …
This week the United Mine Workers of America wrote a letter to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee detailing why they opposed the Lieberman-Warner cap and trade bill. From their letter: We met with Committee staff during the development of S. 2191, expressing our deep concerns about the Bill’s overly aggressive targets and timetables for near-term reductions, particularly the magnitude of reductions required by 2020. It is not feasible to deploy CCS [carbon capture and sequestration] on a large scale basis by that time. With the economy-wide emission trading …
Last week the Natural Resources Defense Council put out a report claiming “Doing Nothing on Global Warming Comes With Huge Price Tag.” Covering the report’s release, the Austin American-Statesman wrote: “If the United States doesn’t do something soon to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it could cost the country $3.8 trillion annually from higher energy and water costs, real estate losses from hurricanes, rising sea levels and other problems, an environmental group predicted Thursday.” The NRDC’s report is a case study in how environmental groups distort science to deceive the …
Continuing our blanket coverage of the Lieberman-Warner cap and trade debate set for the Senate next week, we will be posting some of the state-by-state results from Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis forecast on the economic impacts. First up: Pennsylvania, which is set to lose 22,021 jobs in 2025 even under the most generous assumptions.
Editorializing in favor of the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill set to be debated in the Senate next week, the New York Times urges liberals to “make sure that the economics of this debate are framed in a positive way.” The newspaper need not worry: liberal activist groups and politicians have been trying to spin the largest tax increase in the history of mankind as boon for the economy for some time now. Sen. Hillary Clinton says her cap-and-trade plan would create 5 million new jobs. Sen. Barack Obama promises to use …
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce put together a great chart on the regulatory apparatus that would be needed to implement the economy-killing Lieberman-Warner global warming legislation. Not only would this be a massive expansion of government, but it would also have a devastating impact on states.
Yesterday, The Guardian’s environment editor John Vidal reported on two new studies that show the UN’s clean development mechanism (CDM – an international system established by the Kyoto process that allows rich countries to meet emissions targets by funding clean energy projects in developing nations) is “being routinely abused by chemical, wind, gas and hydro companies.” Vidal writes: A working paper from two senior Stanford University academics examined more than 3,000 projects applying for or already granted up to $10bn of credits from the UN’s CDM funds over the next …
As we outlined earlier today, a cap-and-trade policy would pose a grave threat to the U.S. economy. Yet that won’t stop Congress from charging ahead during the first week of June on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008. The Heritage Foundation has secured a copy of a complete substitute of the amendment (here and here) to be considered by the Senate when lawmakers return from their Memorial Day recess. Like we did last year during the debates over immigration reform and the omnibus spending bill, we’ve made the text …
When the Senate returns from its Memorial Day recess on June 2, lawmakers will begin debating the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade global warming bill. Many environmental activists are worried the bill will not pass this time, and they are counting on a future legislative victory since all three remaining presidential candidates support nearly identical cap-and-trade global warming plans. Unfortunately for the American people, past energy policy decisions are already slowing the U.S. economy in fundamentally the same way a fully implemented cap-and-trade plan would. Under a cap-and-trade system, the government sets a …
