As a Republican, I fully believe in the core conservative values of limited government, low taxes and responsible fiscal policy. But these beliefs are not only for members of the GOP. We all want a government that protects the environment, but we also want that same government to protect the financial security of American families. And that’s why cap and trade is a climate change plan that Congress should avoid.
Cap and trade, also known as the Carbon Tax, is the anti-global warming weapon of choice for the Obama administration and most Democrats in Congress. It’s a deeply flawed strategy that would be too hard to implement, difficult to monitor and, if the European experience is any indication, won’t even lower emissions. It will, however, raise your taxes – big time. By some estimates, an average family’s tax burden could increase as much as $3,400 a year.
The Carbon Tax bill has only just begun its journey through the congressional committee process, but it has already been loaded with special interest handouts that give away billions of dollars in free emissions permits. Many observers fear that the potential for political favoritism and pork barrel spending under cap and trade is virtually unlimited, and with the current crowd controlling the levers of power in Washington that can't be a good thing.
The permit-trading scheme that lies at the heart of cap and trade is another potential disaster. The same inefficient setup that allows politicians to hand out pork also gives Wall Street traders an opening to rake in fortunes for themselves at the public’s expense. Cap and trade could bring about the next mortgage market-style meltdown, the next financial crash that will bankrupt the country while traders walk away with multi-million dollar bonuses for themselves.
The inherent problems with cap and trade will cause widespread damage to a U.S. economy that is still just beginning to mend and to American families that are struggling to make ends meet. It would raise energy prices even higher and thereby increase the cost of goods and services throughout the economy. Employment would also take a savage hit. A study prepared by CRA International for the Coalition for Affordable Energy found that President Obama’s cap and trade plan would result in 1.9 million net job losses by 2020 and 3.2 million by 2025. We don’t have much manufacturing left in the United States, but what there is can be expected to move to countries where electricity is still affordable.
A similar cap and trade plan was attempted last session. A study of that bill commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers estimated that its effects would cause gasoline prices to increase by as much as 69 percent in 10 years and 145 percent in 20 years. Fuel cost increases like that would devastate the U.S. transportation system and dramatically affect the quality of our lives.
Worst of all, this damage could be done for no discernable environmental benefit. The complexity of cap and trade, coupled with its vulnerability to political manipulation, makes it extremely difficult to successfully administer.
The European Union has tried to master cap and trade for more than 10 years now, with little success. In fact, they’ve seen their greenhouse gas emissions increase more than those here in the U.S. No progress has been made on climate change, but consumers are still paying higher electricity rates and businesses are losing their competitive edge. And that leads to a growing suspicion that cap and trade has nothing to do with the environment. It is, instead, just a gigantic tax increase. The costs are measured in the hundreds of billions and the trillions of dollars.
There are other ways to protect our environment. Certainly we can develop strategies that don’t enrich Wall Street while impoverishing Main Street. We need plans that encourage fiscal responsibility, not backroom political deals and government handouts to potential campaign contributors. The president and his Democratic congressional colleagues should devote more time to examining these options and put cap and trade aside. Republicans need to step up to the plate and actually lead the way. After all, historically, conservation is a conservative principle. It was Richard Nixon who established the Environmental Protection Agency.
While cap and trade is not a state issue, it will affect everyone in Maine and throughout America. If you don’t like the sounds of this plan, I suggest you contact Maine’s congressional delegation and make it clear where you stand. Public opinion has stopped some of Washington’s other bad ideas over the past few years, and it can stop this one, too.
Representative Richard M. Cebra of Naples is serving his third term in the Maine House of Representatives representing District 101, which includes Casco, Naples and part of Poland.
- Rich Cebra's blog
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