Will Cap-and-Trade Cost You $2 Trillion?

March 18, 2009 RSS Feed Print

So much for budget transparency. It now looks like the White  House lowballed revenue estimates (actually costs to business and consumers) from his cap-and-trade carbon plan. Instead of $646 billion over eight years, it may cost $2 trillion. According to the Washington Times:

President Obama's climate plan could cost industry close to $2 trillion, nearly three times the White House's initial estimate of the so-called "cap-and-trade" legislation, according to Senate staffers who were briefed by the White House. ... At the meeting, Jason Furman, a top Obama staffer, estimated that the president's cap-and-trade program could cost up to three times as much as the administration's early estimate of $646 billion over eight years. A study of an earlier cap-and-trade bill co-sponsored by Mr. Obama when he was a senator estimated the cost could top $366 billion a year by 2015.

And where might all those extra revenues go? I dunno, maybe pay for Obama's healthcare reform plan, whichit  turns out , may also cost 3x White House projections. That would be $1.5 trillion instead of $600 billion.

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will this bill control all emissions....will i have to count my daily Coke habit against my C02 footprint?...will restaurants have to install recapture devices with your soda?

are we heading into a no-fizz society to satisfy what may be shown to be bad science in just a few years?

would it not be more enviro friendly if we simply tax the hot air emanating from Congress?

and we wonder why all the manufacturing jobs are leaving this country.....

dana wenzel of TX 6:15PM March 24, 2009

Mike S, you say that rising costs of coal and gas will make green energy seem more affordable, but you don't realize that the bottom line there is that green energy is more expensive! That is exactly why we don't use green energy...its such a high cost! It's time we drilled for more oil in ANWR and offshore for our nation, and keep the oil in our nation and not export it.

James F of MN 8:31PM March 23, 2009

And it's money for nothing, a total waste and a total scam.

http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/

Steve of IN 4:10AM March 19, 2009

Capital Commerce

Capital Commerce

U.S. News business reporter Matthew Bandyk examines the issues, people, and debates that shape the nexus of political and economic life in the nation's capital.

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