A study last year from The Heritage Foundation predicted CO2 regulations could cost up to 800,000 jobs per year in some years. Even in a “good” year, our economy would lose more than half a million jobs every year from 2015 through 2026. (These are net job losses, by the way. The Heritage estimate takes into account all the “green” jobs the government is supposedly going to create, and still shows hundreds of thousands of lost jobs each year.)
Manufacturing would be hit especially hard. As many as 3 million people could end up unemployed. That’s because business owners, faced with a massive carbon tax, would pack up and move their plants to China, India or some other location where the government doesn’t impose exorbitant costs.
Congress hasn’t helped matters with its latest attempt at “cap and trade” legislation. Expect significantly higher energy costs if the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, which recently passed the House, becomes law.
As Heritage energy expert Ben Lieberman testified before Congress, the trouble starts as soon as the bill's provisions take effect in 2012. “For a household of four, energy costs go up $436 that year, and they eventually reach $1,241 in 2035 and average $829 annually over that span,” he said. “Electricity costs go up 90 percent by 2035, gasoline by 58 percent, and natural gas by 55 percent by 2035. The cumulative higher energy costs for a family of four by then will be nearly $20,000.”
Regulating CO2 isn’t what Congress had in mind when it passed the Clean Air Act in the 1970s. If the EPA moves forward, a handful of unelected bureaucrats could wreak havoc on our economy. It’s time lawmakers take a deep breath -- and think twice. |