Climate Change Bill Would Lead to Job Loss and Slower Economic Growth

Senate Democrats to Offer Climate Bill

September 29, 2009

Reuters - A climate change bill circulating in the Senate on Tuesday is slightly more ambitious than one passed in the House of Representatives, but still has many details to be worked out on how to encourage companies to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases...

A central component of the "cap and trade" initiative still undetermined, Republicans complained, will identify which industry sectors are to get a fixed number of free government permits to emit declining amounts of carbon dioxide in coming years.

The "Waxman-Markey" bill passed by the House laid out how many free permits would initially be granted to coal-fired utilities, oil refineries, and certain factories.

According to Republican staffers on the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Boxer-Kerry bill would set a "price collar" on only 1 percent of carbon emissions. They said the floor would be set at around $12 per ton of carbon emissions, with a ceiling of $28.

They complained that the legislation would do nothing to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from also getting involved in regulating carbon emissions for the first time under the Clean Air Act.

Senator James Inhofe, the senior Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee and an outspoken opponent of climate change legislation, told reporters that he "can't imagine" the bill being debated and passed by the full Senate this year.

He noted that Democrats already were embroiled in a difficult fight over healthcare reform and were not likely to engage in battle on a second front, especially with time running short this year.

A senior Senate Republican aide said that as of now he knew of no Republican senators who would initially support the bill. But as more details are filled in during coming weeks, the aide said some Republicans could join the Boxer-Kerry effort.

Under "cap and trade," fewer and fewer carbon pollution permits would be issued to companies. The permits that are issued could be traded, or sold, between companies on an as-needed basis.

The Senate Democrats' bill also aims to encourage more "clean vehicles" and to improve airliners' fuel efficiency. It also would help those who suffer job losses from climate control efforts with a "worker adjustment assistance" program.

Like the House-passed bill, the Senate measure aims to protect consumers, especially low-income families, from higher energy prices related to switching from fossil fuels to solar, wind and other more expensive energies.

President Barack Obama is hoping for as much legislative progress as possible this year, before an international meeting in Copenhagen in December to work out new global emission reductions.

Climate Lawsuits are Coming, Gore & Browner Warn

September 22, 2009

Politico - Former Vice President Al Gore and current White House climate change czar Carol Browner are warning companies and lawmakers that the courts will step in to regulate greenhouse gases if Congress fails to act.

"All of the discussion has been about the president and the Congress," Gore told journalists at a U.N. press conference Tuesday. "We have a third branch of government: the courts."

He pointed approvingly to a decision issued Monday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit allowing public-nuisance lawsuits to proceed against companies that produce large amounts of greenhouse gases. (The three-judge panel initially included Judge Sonia Sotomayor, but the two judges resolved the case after she was elevated to the Supreme Court.)

Gore said the trend in the courts was favoring greater regulation.

"The Supreme Corurt ruled over a year ago that CO2 emissions are pollution as covered in the Clean Air Act," he said. "The U.S. EPA as a result of that court ruling has the [authority] to mandate reductions… Yes, there would be some efforts in the legislative branch to remove that authority but anything in the legislative branch of that sort would be vetoed by the president."

"Even in the absence of legislation, exisiting law will requiring significant reduction of CO2. As a practical matter, that puts significant pressue on business lobbies resisting legislation to reassess their position," Gore said.

Browner called attention to the same appeals court ruling and also argued that the (electric) train was leaving the station, one way or another.

"The courts are starting to take control of this issue. If they were to follow this out, they would be setting the standards," Browner told reporters at a separate briefing in New York Tuesday. "Obviously, that’s not something that anybody wants… Everything is moving towards getting legislation done because it is the best way to do it."

Manufacturers Study Finds House Climate Change Bill Would Lead to Job Loss and Slower Economic Growth

August 14, 2009

Water Environment Federation - A study released on August 12 by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) on the impact of The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, also known as the Waxman-Markey Bill (H.R. 2454), cites job losses and slower economic growth in the U.S.

The bill aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to cap the amount of carbon that is emitted by U.S. industry. The legislation does so by mandating a cap and trade program and other provisions governing fuel choices available to businesses and consumers. This bill passed the House of Representatives by a slim margin (219-212) earlier this summer. The Senate is expected to release its version of climate legislation in September.

The study, which was commissioned by the NAM and ACCF and conducted by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) using NAM and ACCF input assumptions, assesses the impact of the Waxman-Markey Bill on manufacturing, jobs, energy prices and our overall economy.

The NAM and ACCF released national data as well as the analysis for 15 industrial states that would be impacted greatly if this or similar legislation is signed into law. The NAM/ACCF study accounts for all federal energy laws and regulations currently in effect. It accounts for increased access to oil and natural gas supplies, new and extended tax credits for renewable generation technologies, increased World Oil Price (WOP) profile, as well as permit allocations for industry and international offsets.

Key findings include: Cumulative Loss in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) up to $3.1 trillion (2012-2030), Employment losses up to 2.4 million jobs in 2030, Residential electricity price increases up to 50 percent by 2030; and Gasoline price increases (per gallon) up 26 percent by 2030. The full report, including the data covering the remaining 35 states will be released in the coming weeks.