Contact:
Marc Morano 202-224-5762
Matt Dempsey 202-224-9797
matthew_dempsey@epw.senate.gov
Link to White Paper
Link to Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill Exposed
WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, today announced the release of a new white paper by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee minority detailing the severe economic impacts of the America's Climate Security Act – S.2191 (Lieberman-Warner) bill. In addition, Senator Inhofe also announced a new web page on the minority portion of the EPW Committee website dedicated to providing an online resource center that will serve as a central hub for all information exposing the flaws of the Lieberman-Warner bill. The website can be viewed at www.epw.senate.gov/lieberman-warnerbillexposed.
“On June 2, 2008, Senate Democrats have vowed to bring forward global warming cap-and-trade legislation before the United States Senate that, if passed, would drastically increase the already skyrocketing cost of energy at the pump and in our homes as well as cost millions of American jobs – all for no environmental gain,” Senator Inhofe said. “Yet despite the enormous financial burden this bill would impose on American families and American workers, the Senate has yet to fully examine and debate this bill.
“To help facilitate the debate and provide information to the American people about the severe economic ramifications of this bill, I am releasing a white paper today that incorporates all of the most recent government and private group sector economic analyses of the bill. I am also announcing the launch of a new webpage on the minority portion of the EPW Committee website that will provide an online resource center that will serve as a central hub for all information exposing the flaws of the Lieberman-Warner bill.
“I am confident that when my Senate colleagues examine the facts about the enormous economic burdens this bill will impose on the American people, they too will oppose it. It seems unlikely that as American families face harsh economic times any Senator would dare stand on the Senate Floor three weeks from now and vote in favor of significantly increasing the price of gas at the pump and legislation that would cost millions of American jobs.”
Key Excerpts from Senate White Paper: The Economics of America’s Climate Security Act of 2007:
-“Lieberman-Warner, if enacted, would likely devastate national and local economies in addition to putting a severe strain on the American family. The bill would reduce the nation’s Gross Domestic Product by 2.3% by only 2015 as modeled by CRA International. EPA finds that in 2030, GDP would be reduced by $983 billion and lowered even further by as much as $2.8 trillion in 2050…”
- “Under this legislation, America stands to lose millions of jobs. Greenspan forecasts such a problem announcing that ‘cap-and-trade systems or carbon taxes are likely to be popular only until real people lose real jobs as their consequence.’ Within only seven years of enactment, up to 1.2 million net jobs will be lost. Many of these will be going offshore, where restrictions on emissions are nonexistent, to countries such as China. Worse, by 2020 up to 3.4 million net jobs may be lost. Thousands more workers in Northeast Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan could become jobless in an area already subjected to heavy layoffs. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that manufacturing output would drop by as much as 9.5% by 2030…”
-“Added on top of nationwide job losses, families will be hurt further at home with heating and electricity bills. EPA modeling of Lieberman-Warner shows that electric prices will rise 44% by 2030 over baseline predictions for that time period…”
-“Kevin Book, an energy research analyst for FBR Capital Market Corporation testified to the Environment and Public Works Committee that not only will consumers be hurt, but the poorest of those will be hurt the worst. Book stated in reference to S.2191 that ‘any effort to trigger conservation or environmental stewardship, even if price hikes are mediated through larger enterprises before they reach consumers, will affect the poorest Americans first…’”
-“EPA suggests that gasoline prices will rise $.53 per gallon on top of the baseline rise in gasoline prices. Additionally, EIA found that gasoline prices could rise anywhere from 41 cents to over a dollar by 2030…”
-“The legislation bypasses the appropriations process and commits revenues from the auctioning of allowances to various different programs potentially predetermining winners and losers in the marketplace. In fact, many in the energy industry support the bill because the costs, according to the CBO, are passed on almost entirely to energy consumers, while the benefits, in the form of free allowances, accrue largely to energy companies and their shareholders, as well as a wide variety of politically favored special interests….”
