Waxman-Markey Climate Bill: Job-killing National Energy Tax

Get the Facts on the President’s State of the Union Energy Claims

House National Resources Committee
January 28, 2010

President Obama: “You can see the results of last year’s investment in clean energy – in the North Carolina company that will create 1200 jobs nationwide helping to make advanced batteries; or in the California business that will put 1,000 people to work making solar panels.”

While the government spends millions of dollars to create green jobs, they are promoting job-killing policies that harm existing energy jobs.

In the last year, the Administration blocked new offshore drilling, cancelled existing oil and gas leases, withdrew shale research and development leases, proposed billions in higher taxes on energy production, erected more red-tape and bureaucracy into American-made energy on federal lands, and failed to offer renewable energy permits on federal land.

We need to create green jobs, but with 10 percent unemployment we need to do so much more. The President should support an all-of-the-above energy plan that creates all types of energy jobs: nuclear, wind, solar, oil, natural gas, hydropower, mining, and manufacturing.

Job creation should not be limited to those few types preferred by the elites in Washington D.C. - Americans need every job we can get.

President Obama: “That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country.”

Republicans have been vocal advocates for building new nuclear power plants to create clean, reliable energy and made it a central part of their all-of-the-above energy plan, the American Energy Act, introduced last June.

President Obama should support this plan that calls for the construction of over 100 new nuclear power plants over the next 20 years.

Although the President now claims to support nuclear power, he slashed funding for Yucca Mountain. Expanding the use of nuclear power will be impossible if this Administration doesn’t support efforts to properly dispose of nuclear material.

President Obama: “It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development.”

Just days after taking office, this Administration reinstated a defacto ban on offshore drilling. Deciding whether or not to create over a million new American jobs shouldn’t be a difficult decision.

According to a report by the American Energy Alliance, permanently lifting the moratoria on energy production in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) would create 1.2 million new, well-paying jobs annually across the country; $8 trillion in additional economic output; and $70 billion in additional wages each year.

Additionally, the federal government would collect over $2.2 trillion in total tax receipts – which would help reduce the trillion dollar Obama/Pelosi budget deficit.

President Obama: “And yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.”

The President speaks as if the Waxman-Markey climate bill is somehow an all-of-the-above energy plan, when it’s really just the opposite. It’s a job-killing national energy tax that will spike energy bills, send American jobs overseas, and devastate our economy.

According to the President’s own Administration, this National Energy Tax will cost families $1,700 a year.

This bill will cause Americans to pay higher prices to import energy and resources from foreign countries with far lower environmental standards than our own.

President Obama: “…providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future – because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.”

The Republican American Energy Act focuses on job creation and protecting our environment by encouraging innovation in the marketplace.

By developing American energy, including more offshore energy production, we can use the revenue raised from leasing to provide direct funding for renewable energy projects.

While the Democrats’ National Energy Tax will kill millions of American jobs and send them overseas, the Republican plan focuses squarely on creating ALL types of energy jobs by encouraging development of renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear and biomass, while also producing more American-made oil and natural gas.

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