The Economic Costs of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Change Legislation
H/T: Flopping Aces
Members of Congress are considering several bills designed to combat climate change. Chief among them is Senate bill 2191--America's Climate Security Act of 2007--spearheaded by Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA). This bill would set a limit on the emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide from the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas.
YIKES! Any you though paying 4 dollars/gallon of gas was expensive......
S. 2191 extracts trillions of dollars from the millions of American energy consumers and delivers this wealth to permanently identified classes of recipients, such as tribal groups and preferred technology sectors, while largely circumventing the normal congressional appropriations process. Unbound by the periodic review of the normal budgetary process, this de facto tax-and-spend program threatens to become permanent--independent of the goals of the legislation.
This type of wealth redistribution sounds similar to Demand 13 and 14 of the National German Socialist Workers Party
The Heritage Foundation has presented a detailed review of the economic impact of S.B. 2191. Their conclusion finds this Bill to be one of the most expensive environmental undertakings [disasters] in history.
More COLD FACTS on Global Climate ChangeEven under a fairly optimistic set of assumptions, the economic impact of S. 2191 is likely to be serious for the job market, household budgets, energy prices, and the economy overall. The burden will be shouldered by the average American. The bill would have the same effect as a major new energy tax--only worse. In the case of S. 2191, increases in the tax rate are set by forces beyond legislative control.
Under a more realistic set of assumptions, the impact would be considerably more severe. More significant than the wealth destroyed by S. 2191 is the wealth transferred from the energy-using public to a list of selected special interests.
Overall, S. 2191 would likely be--by far--the most expensive environmental undertaking in history.
William W. Beach is Director of the Center for Data Analysis;
David W. Kreutzer, Ph.D., is Senior Policy Analyst for Energy Economics and Climate Change in the Center for Data Analysis;
Ben Lieberman is Senior Policy Analyst in Energy and the Environment in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies;
Nicolas D. Loris is a Research Assistant in the Roe Institute at The Heritage Foundation.
|