Energy prices would spike, too. Heating oil would go from $2,120 annually per household in 2012 to $2,728 by 2030. Over the same period, electricity would rise from $1,213 per year to $1,860, and natural gas would go from $1,090 to $1,393. By 2030, the Heritage researchers write, “the total energy bill for the average American consumer has gone up $8,870.”

How would Lieberman-Warner affect employment? The Heritage analysis shows that annual job losses exceed 500,000 before 2030 and could approach 1 million. Factory jobs would decline sharply; we’d lose 2.3 million jobs in durable-goods manufacturing in 2029 as the changes forced the economy rapidly away from that sector.

What about the “green-collar” jobs the bill is expected to create? The researchers did find an initial bump in employment as firms buy the equipment they need to make themselves more CO₂-friendly. “However, any ‘green-collar’ jobs created are more than offset by other job losses,” Heritage experts note. “The initial uptick is small compared to the hundreds of thousands of lost jobs in later years.”

Lost income. Higher energy costs. Fewer jobs. Even for Congress, that’s quite a list of unintended consequences -- and all to satisfy the mass-hysteria fueled by junk science, Hollywood and an out-of-control public-education system that’s brainwashing an entire generation of kids to think we're all going to burn to a crisp. Seems the only thing that truly fried at the moment is common sense.