The House just passed a massive power grab disguised as a bill called Waxman-Markey, more commonly known as the cap and trade bill. This bill will cripple the United States economy in the name of reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Proponents of “America’s Clean Energy and Security Act” say that making our taxes skyrocket will help save us from global warming. This, unfortunately, is not true.
Like most legislation passed through our Democrat-controlled Congress, what they’re telling us they’re trying to accomplish has little to do with what the bill will actually do. Cap and trade is being passed in the name of stopping global warming, something that has turned out to be provably false. Shockingly enough, the Earth is actually cooling right now. Around the 1850s, our planet came off of a “Little Ice Age." So what happened then? The Earth began to warm itself. And now, we’ve started to cool again. Throughout history, the planet has gone through a series of warming and cooling cycles, and manmade global warming has been found to be pretty much non-existent. Even NASA, normally led by global warming Kool-Aid drinker James Hansen, has been forced to admit what most of us could figure out using just our common sense. A recently released NASA study showed that, surprisingly enough, solar activity is responsible for heating or cooling the Earth. Basically, solar cycles influence the temperature on Earth. Solar variations over the past century have had a huge impact on temperature here, and this trend can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution.
Even if manmade global warming was real, this bill would still not stop the so-called "warming trend." The biggest energy consumers and emitters of CO2 are countries like China and India, who will do absolutely nothing to lower their energy consumption or CO2 emissions. So we will basically be destroying our economy in the name of global warming for nothing. If global warming is real, it is a global problem, one that will require a global solution. It won’t matter if the United States takes action if massive energy-using countries like India or China don't, because countries like China and India will keep on ruining the environment and causing more man-made global warming. We’ll be causing massive economic pains with literally no environmental gains. So either way you look at it, this bill is a monumental loser.
This, however, is not stopping cap and trade defenders from trying to force this through. If this bill passes through the Senate, we will have the largest tax increase in American history. In the middle of a harsh recession, the results will be swift: our recession will quickly become a depression. This will effect Americans in numerous ways, and devastate the economy in numerous ways as well.
First, this will increase every American’s cost of living. From filling up the gas tank in your car to using electricity to buying food, anything that could be considered energy consumption will be taxed. Cap and trade will also increase the price on fossil fuels, with that increase in price passed on to consumers. Energy production will be costlier, and therefore, more expensive for us as consumers. The Congressional Budget Office is estimating that Waxman-Markey will have cost $110 billion a year by 2020.
It will also have an effect on our global economic competitiveness. Cap and trade will raise costs for business owners, who will basically have three options: move their business overseas to countries who have no mandatory carbon policies, raise the prices on their products to offset their costs, or close their doors. Most businesses who can will simply move overseas; unfortunately, to countries like China. This will make China’s economy even stronger and give them even more incentive to not take part in a cap and trade scheme like this. It’s in their own economic self-interest, after all, and with all of their faults, China’s leaders aren’t currently looking to destroy the Chinese economy.
And for businesses who do continue to operate here in the United States, the remaining two options for business owners still don’t bode well for the economy. Small businesses are struggling enough already without having to be punished further with higher taxes and higher costs. Even the businesses who simply raise the prices on the products to offset their costs aren’t safe because consumers may not be able to afford higher prices. It’s a vicious cycle, and one that we don’t need to be undertaking.
And after all this sacrificing -- hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, businesses closing or moving overseas, families struggling to make ends meet -- we still will be making little to no difference in the temperature. Climate scientist Chip Knappenberger of New Hope Environmental Services has estimated that Waxman-Markey will have managed to lower the Earth’s temperature a whopping 0.1 - 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2100.
Does this matter to Democrats in the House and the eight GOP Congressmen who voted for cap and trade? Not really. Most Democrats just want to ram this through without Americans being able to even have a chance to read the bill or fully understand what they’re getting. Obama’s energy czar, Carol Browner, even admitted that she herself hasn’t even read the entire 1,000 page bill. They won’t admit that, though, and they don’t want you knowing what this will to do our economy. They know how awful it will be for their reelection chances in 2010, so the less the American people know, the better.
Fortunately, we still have a chance to stop this in the Senate. It’s our duty to be alert and informed, and make our voices heard in Washington. Whether man-made global warming is real or not, cap and trade is not the solution. And our battered economy just can’t take this anymore.
Cassy Fiano's Bio
Cassy Fiano is a sports journalist turned political blogger ( www.cassyfiano.com ). She's a twenty-something opinionated conservative who has worked on a presidential campaign, campaigned for George W. Bush in 2004, and served on the planning committee for the Jacksonville Tax Day Tea Party.
Posted
07-02-2009 12:05 AM
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