Senator Udall on Cap-and-Trade
Senator Udall held a town hall meeting today in Albuquerque, and I asked him an important question about the the cap-and-trade bill (Waxman-Markey) that has already passed in the House and will be voted on in the Senate.
During last year’s campaign, then-Senator Obama acknowledged that his cap-and-trade plan would necessarily cause energy costs says to “skyrocket.” What’s worse, though, is that as proposed, Waxman-Markey will have an even greater impact on energy costs than Obama’s plan.
If we’re going to be placing such a heavy burden on Americans, there ought be a substantial benefit. Unfortunately, using our government’s own climate model, analysis by the Cato Institute projects that Waxman-Markey alone would only reduce global temperatures 0.07°F by 2050, and 0.2°F by 2100.
At the town hall meeting, I asked Senator Udall if he supported the bill, and if so, how he justified all of the bill’s economic pain for the tiny environmental gain. Senator Udall ignored the ‘economic pain’ aspect, and instead spoke about the importance of reducing foreign oil dependence and making New Mexico a center for renewable energy.
It’s convenient, as Senator Udall has done, to ignore such ugly consequences and instead frame the bill as a green job creator. But even then, such claims are misleading. The bill is not simply just creating new green jobs–it’s doing so at the expense of other jobs.
In: Uncategorized
Tagged with: Energy and Environment
