The Lieberman-Warner “Climate Security Act” (S. 2191) is scheduled for a vote next week in the US Senate. The cap-and-trade scheme created by the bill would set an arbitrary ceiling on how much carbon can be produced by a given company and allows a company operating below that cap to sell credits to over-producing companies. The credits would be traded on a market not unlike a stock exchange, with brokers poised to cash in on commissions for trading paper that represents theoretical potential pollution.
This bill would create a huge expansion in the federal government’s size and power. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said that this bill will result in $1.2 trillion in new federal revenue between 2009 and 2018. The CBO also stated it would levy $90 billion a year in unfunded private sector mandates. The report shows that most of the cost of the bill would ultimately be passed on to consumers.
The Wall Street Journal suggests the Lieberman-Warner bill would be “the most extensive government reorganization of the American economy since the 1930s.” And they probably have that right. Literally, from thin air, a whole new industry based on carbon trading will spring up, and that industry will touch and profit from every aspect of the economy. Nothing will be free from the effects of this legislation.
Accelerating the already rapid increases in the price of energy is the first, most obvious consequence of the bill, but increased costs will roll through our entire economy with every product and service seeing a commensurate price increase. Scarcity will be artificially introduced into the supply and demand environment of materials that would otherwise be abundant by restricting the energy needed to produce them. Everything will cost more, and because the new economic situation created by the bill doesn’t add to the nation’s productivity or create wealth of any kind, wages will not rise in proportion. The spending power of the dollar will simply diminish. Conservative estimates predict a drop in gross domestic product (GDP) of 4 – 6%.
The Lieberman-Warner bill will create dozens of new bureaucracies and hundreds of new regulations will come into being. This ambitious takeover of the economy will change regulations for fish and wildlife management, firefighting, air conditioning, space heater use, forestry, public health, utilities, taxes, corporations and more.
The bill is so far reaching it’s difficult to foresee all of the consequences, but the economic burden created by it is obvious. There can be no doubt Lieberman-Warner will leave us a poorer nation if enacted.
Take Action
Visit NoCapAndTrade.com to sign a petition and send a message to your elected officials.
Read How Minnesota will be Affected by the Lieberman-Warner Climate Change Legislation at The Heritage Foundation.
The American Taxpayers Are Under Fire Every Day From Our Elected Officials Giving Away Or Over Spending. This is The Most Inept Group Of
Politicians In History. Constant Hearings And Investigations Are Conducted And The Business Of Running The Government Always Takes A Back Seat. I do Not think They Could Manage A One Cow Cattle Drive.
Thank You!
Can you post a list of the politicians for/against this devastating legislation? Thanks!
We’ll work on it. For starters: Senators Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar are for it.
This scheme does appear to be a way of garnering the interest of those that are already rich and powerful into a new way of making even more money. Unfortunately that’s the way America works. Perhaps, however, it will evolve into something more beneficial for the masses. We do need to hold our elected officals accountable for their actions. But we also need to be an educated voting public. Something that is difficult to do with the mainstream media enslaved by only a few owners.
“Perhaps, however, it will evolve into something more beneficial for the masses.”
Don’t hold your breath – or do. It will reduce your carbon footprint.
Ha Ha, very droll…
It’s about time someone exposed the big banks and Wall Street for the manipulating fraudsters that they are. In an insider’s club report a veteran trader exposed the banks and showed how the big banks made a huge power grab that allowed them to grow unchecked.
Big Banks Trades: This is important to understand why we never have the freedom to do what we want to do.