THE DAILY BLADE: Dems Knee-Cap Economy, Consumers
While the media were preoccupied with Michael Jackson’s untimely and possibly preventable death, the House passed a bill to foist a costly-and-theoretical cap-and-trade scheme on American businesses by just 7 votes (219 to 212; 44 Dems voted “Nay”), reports The New York Times:
The vote was the first time either house of Congress had approved a bill meant to curb the heat-trapping gases scientists have linked to climate change. The legislation, which passed despite deep divisions among Democrats, could lead to profound changes in many sectors of the economy, including electric power generation, agriculture, manufacturing and construction. …
At the heart of the legislation is a cap-and-trade system that sets a limit on overall emissions of heat-trapping gases while allowing utilities, manufacturers and other emitters to trade pollution permits, or allowances, among themselves. The cap would grow tighter over the years, pushing up the price of emissions and presumably driving industry to find cleaner ways of making energy.
President Obama hailed the House passage of the bill as “a bold and necessary step.” He said in a statement that he looked forward to Senate action that would send a bill to his desk “so that we can say, at long last, that this was the moment when we decided to confront America’s energy challenge and reclaim America’s future.”
But cap-and-trade will cloud America’s future, warns The Wall Street Journal:
[T]he Congressional Budget Office did an analysis of what has come to be known as the Waxman-Markey bill. According to the CBO, the climate legislation would cost the average household only $175 a year by 2020. Edward Markey, Mr. Waxman's co-author, instantly set to crowing that the cost of upending the entire energy economy would be no more than a postage stamp a day for the average household. …
To get support for his bill, Mr. Waxman was forced to water down the cap in early years to please rural Democrats, and then severely ratchet it up in later years to please liberal Democrats. The CBO's analysis looks solely at the year 2020, before most of the tough restrictions kick in. As the cap is tightened and companies are stripped of initial opportunities to "offset" their emissions, the price of permits will skyrocket beyond the CBO estimate of $28 per ton of carbon. The corporate costs of buying these expensive permits will be passed to consumers. …
When the Heritage Foundation did its analysis of Waxman-Markey, it broadly compared the economy with and without the carbon tax. Under this more comprehensive scenario, it found Waxman-Markey would cost the economy $161 billion in 2020, which is $1,870 for a family of four. As the bill's restrictions kick in, that number rises to $6,800 for a family of four by 2035.
Obama personally lobbied dithering Dems, perhaps prompted by this new study on the effects of global warming on fish published in the journal Science: Increasing ocean absorption of atmospheric CO2 is enlarging the ears of fish (an internal structure known as an “otolith”). The study does not explain why fish ears are getting bigger, but may offer some insight about why global warming is of particular interest to Obama.
In Memoriam
Michael Jackson, August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009
Farrah Fawcett, February 2, 1947 - June 25, 2009
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