The Senate's leading climate-change bill, while aiming to combat
global warming by reducing carbon dioxide in the air, actually
poses "extraordinary perils" for Americans and the economy,
according to a new study
from The Heritage Foundation. The study, produced by Heritage's
Center for Data Analysis (CDA), forecasts severe
consequences-including crushing energy costs, millions of jobs lost
and falling household income-if Congress enacts the so-called
Lieberman-Warner bill.
The bill, which attempts to cap greenhouse gas emissions, with
emphasis on carbon dioxide (CO2), creates federally allotted
permits, or allowances, for each ton of CO2 emitted. The cost of
allowances paid by emitters will have similar effects of a massive
energy tax and will result in significantly higher energy costs.
Lieberman-Warner (S.2191) relies heavily on an unproven technology,
capturing carbon and sequestering it[1]. Even with the most generous
assumptions - presuming that carbon capture and sequestration is
commercially developed in 10 years - the economic costs for the
average American are staggering. Under a more realistic scenario,
the economic impacts in terms of losses in the job market, losses
in household budgets, and higher energy prices will be drastically
higher. To make matters worse, there will be inconsequential
effects on the environment to show for it, if any.
Inevitably the bill will affect each state differently. Some
states are more energy-intensive than others and some rely a great
deal on manufacturing to fuel its economy. Regardless, the costs in
every state are significant. Increases in electricity, gasoline and
natural gas paired with decreases in personal income are a dreadful
site for any American. Moreover, the projected losses in jobs and
Gross State Product (GSP) illustrate how each state's economy will
be operating well under its potential directly because of the
Lieberman-Warner bill. What follows are 50 state-by-state breakouts
of the impact the bill would have on jobs and the economy.
How Lieberman-Warner
Would Affect the Price of Gasoline (chart)
Show references in this report
[1]Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), also
known as carbon storage, is being explored as a way to reduce
greenhouse gases. According to the World Resources Institute, "CCS
requires capturing carbon dioxide from power plants and other
industrial facilities, transporting it to suitable locations,
injecting it into deep underground geological formations, and
monitoring its behavior.... [T]here are no widely approved
standards for...CCS projects." See World Resources Institute,
"Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS)," at http://www.wri.org/project/carbon-capture-sequestration (April
30, 2008).