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Monday, June 22, 2009

Cap and Trade Will "Skyrocket Electricity Prices"

As Congress takes up the cap and trade tax, the CBO has estimated that the bill would cost taxpayers $175 per year. The problem with that figure, as Heritage points out, is that it assumes the amount collected and spent by the government is essentially rebated to consumers...as if when the government withholds $1000 from your paycheck, they refund the full amount to you.

If you doubt Heritage, just take it from Obama's 2008 speech directly:

Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.

Hard to argue with that...and generally when people use the term "skyrocket," they don't just mean it will go up slightly. But I forgot - changing lightbulbs is going to save us all that additional cost.