Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Senate to Vote on Global Warming Solutions Act today






















Today we will know which state senators voted to raise your energy bills, destroy jobs, and impose further damage on Maryland's economy. The full senate will vote on SB 309, the deceptively titled Global Warming Solutions Act.

Contrary to the title, this bill won't provide any solutions to global warming. Carbon dioxide emission reduction schemes do not lower global temperatures, or for that matter, result in reduced emissions, just ask the Europeans.

Make no mistake about it, a vote for this bill is a vote to increase residential and commercial energy costs and destroy jobs. The greens, going by their own pre-determined studies, make the predictable, but mythical argument that this legislation will create green collar jobs and be a net benefit to the state. It won't.

Looking at analysis of the federal cap and trade bill (Liberman-Warner) gives us a picture of what will happen should Maryland pass the Global Warming Solutions Act.

Analysis of Liberman-Warner by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation found that


The U.S. would lose between 1.2 million and 1.8 million jobs by 2020, and as many as 4 million by 2030;

Additional costs per household of $739 to $2,927 per year by 2020,increasing to $4,022-$6,752 per year by 2030;

Gasoline price increase of up to 144 percent, electricity price increase of up to 129percent, and natural gas price increase of up to 146 percent by 2030;

GDP reduced by $151 billion to $210 billion per year by 2020, and by $631 billion to $669 billion per year by 2030; and

Reductions in the production of coal and electricity of 35 and 12 percent, respectively.

And this is AFTER you take into account any new "green collar" jobs from the artificial government-mandated market.

A Congressional Budget Office report noted that a 15% reduction in carbon emissions would cost the poorest 20% of the population $680(calculated in 2006 dollars). That is just a 15% reduction, Liberman-Warner proposes a 30% reduction below 2005 levels by 2030 and 70% by 2050.

Maryland's Global Warming Solutions Act mandates a 25% reduction by 2020. This bill and its phantom benefits are nothing more than collectivist Utopian dreams masked in shoddy economics.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Can you say conflict of interest? Can the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation produce an unbiased review? I think not.