Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman have finally released their cap-and-trade energy tax bill. Like the Kerry-Boxer energy tax bill and Waxman-Markey energy tax bill, this is shaping up to be incredibly costly and restrictive of Americans' energy freedom.
All cap-and-trade bills drive up the cost of energy and harm the economy, but this bill goes one step further and includes an explicit gas tax (see Sec. 729). Do Americans really need to pay higher prices at the pump?
This bill has been shopped around to big business and environmental special interests for months, but this is the first time that the American people, ones who will be forced to pay the higher energy prices get to see the bill.
Amazingly, even though the bill will cost Americans billions in higher taxes, there bill will not affect global temperature in any significant way. Chip Knappenberger reports that:
"The global temperature "savings" of the Kerry-Lieberman bill is astoundingly small--0.043°C (0.077°F) by 2050 and 0.111°C (0.200°F) by 2100. In other words, by century's end, reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 83% will only result in global temperatures being one-fifth of one degree Fahrenheit less than they would otherwise be. That is a scientifically meaningless reduction."
A full copy of the 987 page bill is available here.
A 21 page summary Kerry and Lieberman's bill is available here.
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a not-for-profit organization that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. IER maintains that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.
