Brookings Study Confirms Speaker Pelosi’s New National Energy Tax Would Cost Jobs, Kill Economic Growth

MONDAY, AUG 3, 2008

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TUESDAY, AUG 4, 2008

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WEDNESDAY, AUG 5, 2008

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THURSDAY, AUG 6, 2008

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Leader Alert

Brookings Study Confirms Speaker Pelosi’s New National Energy Tax Would Cost Jobs, Kill Economic Growth
Liberal Brookings Institute Report Notes that ‘Cap and Trade’ Would Cost Jobs, Raise the Cost of Energy for American families

Washington, Jun 9 -

The Brookings Institute released a report yesterday, “Consequences of Cap and Trade,” further confirming what House Republicans have been saying for months: that implementing the new “cap and trade” national energy tax championed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) would reduce economic growth; would impose higher energy costs on American families and small businesses; and, would actually increase unemployment at a time when nearly one in 10 Americans is out of work.

The report notes that Speaker Pelosi’s new national energy tax would:

Reduce total personal consumption by 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent, or about $1 trillion to $2 trillion in from 2010 to 2050;
Reduce the level of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by around 2.5 percent relative to what it otherwise would have been in 2050;
Reduce employment levels by 0.5 percent in the first 10 years alone.

And the Washington Times reported today that:

“About 35 percent of crude-oil-related jobs and 40 percent of coal-related jobs would be lost in 2025, according to the analysis. It assumes that the majority of workers would find new jobs, but the net job loss would be 0.5 percent over the first 10 years that the legislation is in effect…Production and employment at utilities also would take a hit.”

The study also found that for every eight percent of reduced carbon emissions, it increases energy costs to the consumer by 45 percent.

Speaker Pelosi’s new national energy tax, described by the Orange County Register as “special-interest legislation at its worst, favoring some, penalizing others, under the guise of changing what mankind has virtually no control over, the climate,” would wreak havoc on American families and small businesses when they are struggling the most.

The tax could cost American families up to $3,100 per year, will send countless American jobs overseas to China and India at a time when U.S. workers can afford it least, and place an enormous burden on everyone any time they flip on a light switch, drive a car, or when buy any product manufactured in the United States. At a time when gas prices have risen 41 days in a row, as today’s New York Times reports, do the Democrats really think now is a good time to be punishing the American people with higher taxes on energy?

House Republicans have a better solution: an “all of the above” energy strategy that will clean up the environment, create jobs in America, and lower energy prices – without raising taxes on a single American family or small business. Led by Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN), the GOP American Energy Solutions Group has outlined the cornerstones of the House Republican approach to energy:

Increasing environmentally-safe energy production on remote lands and far off our shores;
Promoting the use of alternative fuels that will reduce carbon emissions, such as nuclear, clean-coal, and renewable energy technologies; and
Encouraging increased efficiencies and cutting edge technologies to maximize America’s energy potential.

Will Congressional Democrats join House Republicans in opposing new taxes on the middle class in the midst of a deepening recession? Or will they charge full steam ahead with their plan to tax the American middle class and trade away jobs and economic growth?

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HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner