The Biggest Tax Increase in American History is Completely Unnecessary

Brace yourself, my dear friend, for the biggest and most unnecessary tax increase in American history. It’s called “climate change” legislation, but it used to be called “global warming”. Since global temps have flat-lined since 2001, it can’t be called “warming” anymore.

You may know it as “cap-and-trade” or formally as the Clean Energy and Security Act – the heinous bill that was passed Friday evening, June 26, 2009, by the U. S. House of Representatives. But one has to ask, “representatives of whom”? Certainly not of Arkansans.

Three of Arkansas’ four congressmen had the good sense and/or an adequate commitment to Arkansans to vote in their best interest. Rep. Vic Snyder did not.

The right name for this legislation is “decapitate and tax”. It will create enormous new tax burdens while decapitating any hope for Arkansas industries to successfully compete in a global marketplace. I salute Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR) who voted against this bill, acknowledging in a guest editorial in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (27 June 09) that the bill would cost Arkansas jobs. Rep. Ross also wrote, “We must be very careful in passing any climate-change legislation to ensure that we do not enact policies that close our local factories and ship our jobs and carbon dioxide emissions overseas, which would do nothing for planet Earth. The reality is that between now and 2040, 97 percent of new carbon emissions will not be produced from the United States or Europe, but rather from places like China, India and the Middle East.”

A cap-and-trade program is projected to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Since 85 percent of America's energy needs come from fossil fuels, cap-and-trade would constitute a massive new tax on energy consumption.

According to The Heritage Foundation, after adjusting for inflation, the government would collect $5.7 trillion in new tax revenue from this legislation between 2012 and 2035. The Foundation’s economic analysis found that, by 2035, this new energy tax would also:
• Raise electricity rates 90 percent after adjusting for inflation;
• Raise inflation-adjusted gasoline prices by 58 percent;
• Raise residential natural gas prices by 55 percent; and
• Raise an average family's annual energy bill by $1,241.

But the $1,241 annual energy bill is just the direct increase in energy prices that consumers will face. As energy prices increase, the cost of making products becomes more expensive. Businesses will have to pass the higher costs of operating onto consumers, which will be reflected in the higher prices we will pay for products.

So how will this affect Arkansans?
• We make tires in Texarkana. They’ll cost more.
• We grow and process chickens all over Arkansas. They’ll cost more.
• We have world-class agriculture in Southeast and Northeast Arkansas. Everything Arkansas farmers grow will cost more.
• We make glass and steel in Jonesboro and Blytheville. That will cost more.
• In fact, practically everything we buy and consume will cost more.

The Heritage Foundation’s analysis concluded that
• Higher energy prices will push unemployment up by 1,145,000 jobs on average, with peaks of over 2,479,000 jobs lost.
• Our Gross Domestic Product will drop by over $9.4 trillion.
• The next generation will inherit a federal debt pumped up by $28,728 per person.

So what about the climate? What about global warming and the environment? Is all of this economic pain justified by gains against global warming?

Climatologists calculate that the measures in this legislation will lower temperatures by only hundredths of a degree in 2050 and no more than two-tenths of a degree at the end of the century (http://masterresource.org/?p=2355).

This ram down, cram down legislation now moves to the U.S. Senate. Please contact Sen. Blanche Lincoln and urge her to vote against this atrocious legislation. We can hope that, like on the “card check” legislation, she’ll have a timely election year conversion.

This horrendous legislation is so unnecessary! There are practical and feasible solutions.

First, let's take the time to establish credible science on the issues of climate change. In spite of what you may have heard from the media, the world's scientists are sharply divided on this issue.

Second, let's move toward energy independence and protection of the environment in concurrent and synergistic steps by

• Investing in the development of new transportation technologies such as hydrogen powered cars which offer the promise of zero emissions where the only byproduct from the cars is water vapor. This remarkable technology is already in use in California and Japan.
• Leveraging America's vast resources of natural gas, coupled with new low carbon emission technologies. Unlike other fossil fuels, natural gas is clean burning and emits lower levels of potentially harmful byproducts into the air.
• Producing electricity (and hydrogen for our cars) with nuclear power and with the world's largest supply of coal, using already available clean-burn technologies.

Finally, we must be constantly aware that we live and compete in a global economy. We must never take measures that unilaterally put our economy at a disadvantage - and therefore our national security at unacceptable risk.

Click here to return to www.CurtisColeman.com.