We Can’t Afford Waxman-Markey

Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress are advancing the Waxman-Markey “American Clean Energy and Security Act.”  Billed as a means “to create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy” the legislation will have far-reaching effects on both the economy and on the wallets and pocketbooks of all Americans.  It will raise the cost of almost everything we purchase, especially direct energy sources.  Worse yet, the bill is a response to a problem that hasn’t been definitively proven.  Man-made global warming is still  a scientific hypothesis.  There are as many willing to rebut the theory as there are proponents.  And yet, we are proposing to hamstring our economy in order to stave off further negative effects from our contribution to global warming.

The Heritage Foundation recently published their Cap and Tax Top Ten List.  It includes the following:

1. Cap and Trade Is a Massive Energy Tax
2. It Will Not Make a Substantive Impact on the Environment
3. It Will Kill Jobs
4. It Will Cause Electricity Bills and Gas Prices to Sharply Increase
5. It Will Outsource Manufacturing Jobs and Hurt Free Trade
6. It Will Make You Choose Between Energy, Groceries, Clothing, and Haircuts
7. It Will Be Highly Susceptible to Fraud and Corruption
8. It Will Hurt Senior Citizens, the Poor, and the Unemployed the Worst
9. It Will Cost American Families Over $3,000 a Year
10. President Obama Admitted “Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket” Under a Cap-and-Trade Program (January 2008) -follow link for video.

The site gives a further explanation of each point.