Environmental Law

A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE LIEBERMAN-WARNER "CLIMATE CHANGE" BILL

By STEPHEN HOLZER

     Sen. Inhofe (R.-Oka.) has an analysis that will make you think twice about this bill (S. 2191, "America's Climate Security Act of 2007"):

The issue of climate change is now at the forefront of American environmental policy.  While the science behind the causes of recent warming trends has been argued vigorously in the past, the debate over the economic costs of addressing this issue has been relatively quiet until now.  However, on this issue there is little to debate at all. Leaders from both sides of the aisle agree that curbing greenhouse gas emissions will be an expensive endeavor.

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Lieberman-Warner, if enacted, would likely devastate national and local economies in addition to putting a severe strain on the American family.  The bill would reduce the nation?s Gross Domestic Product by 2.3% by only 2015 as modeled by CRA International.... EPA finds that in 2030, GDP would be reduced by $983 billion and lowered even further by as much as $2.8 trillion in 2050.

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Under this legislation, America stands to lose millions of jobs.  Greenspan forecasts such a problem, announcing that ?cap-and-trade systems or carbon taxes are likely to be popular only until real people lose real jobs as their consequence.?... Within only seven years of enactment, up to 1.2 million net jobs will be lost....Many of these will be going offshore, where restrictions on emissions are nonexistent, to countries such as China. 

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Kevin Book, an energy research analyst for FBR Capital Market Corporation testified to the Envuironment and Public Works Committee that not only will consumers be hurt, but the poorest of those will be hurt the worst.  Book stated in reference to S.2191 that ?any effort to trigger conservation or environmental stewardship, even if price hikes are mediated through larger enterprises before they reach consumers, will affect the poorest Americans first.... Those who are struggling now to pay their heating bills will suffer under this legislation.    The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report last year stating that American households would bear the biggest costs of a cap-and-trade bill.

Sen. Inhofe's analysis can be found at this website.  As they say in poker, "read it and weep."

Full post as published by Environmental Legal Blogs on May 31, 2008 (boomark / email).