May 27, 2009 5:53 pm ET
In a May 26th op-ed titled "Waxman the Anchorman," Republican Study Committee Chair Rep. Tom Price accused Democrats of "crafting an enormous anchor to chain to the U.S. economy." Along with over-using a terrible analogy, Rep. Price's op-ed is littered with worn-out, disproven talking points.
Rep. Price: "The signature program of the Waxman-Markey legislation is a National Energy Tax, in the form of a "cap-and-trade" program, which mandates reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. And just days before last November's election, then-candidate Barack Obama admitted that 'under [his] plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.' Of course, it won't just be electricity. Energy costs are embedded in the price of everything we buy. If enacted, this energy tax could cost the average household over $3,000 per year." [Price Human Events op-ed, 5/26/09]
Even Before Markup, The EPA Estimated Cap-And-Trade Bill Would Cost Less Than $150 Annually. According to the Wall Street Journal: "The Environmental Protection Agency presented its analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill on Tuesday and said the contentious plan would cost households less than $150 a year. That's a far cry from some of the dueling price tags that have been bandied about." [Wall Street Journal, 4/21/09; emphasis added]
Rep. Price: Skyrocketing electricity rates will cause American families and businesses to reduce their electricity usage by 36%. [Price Human Events op-ed, 5/26/09]
A Clean Energy Standard Would Save $95 Billion On Energy & Gas Bills. According to the Center for American Progress: "A national renewable electricity standard, a key piece of the clean energy legislation currently before Congress, would save households and businesses in every state billions of dollars in electricity and natural gas bills... The numbers come from the Union of Concerned Scientists, who earlier this year analyzed a renewable electricity standard that would aim to have 25 percent of our electricity come from renewable sources by 2025. They found that this standard would save families and businesses $95 billion in electricity and natural gas bills through 2030 and spur new investments and hundreds of thousands of new clean-energy jobs." [Center for American Progress, 5/19/09]
Rep. Price On Democratic Plan: "As a result [of the Waxman-Markey bill], aggregate GDP falls by $9.6 trillion, and average yearly unemployment increases by 1,105,000 jobs. [Price Human Events op-ed, 5/26/09]
Rep. Price On Republican Plan: Finally, this all-you-can-create plan unleashes the potential of today's technologies and resources such as nuclear power, clean coal, petroleum, natural gas, and synthetic fuels... Not only will our plan give the United States greater direction over its energy future, it will lead to new jobs to support a broader, more stable employment foundation for American workers." [Price Human Events op-ed, 5/26/09; emphasis added]
Investment in Clean Energy Technology Creates FOUR TIMES As Many Jobs As An Investment In Oil & Gas. According to the Center for American Progress: "Spending $100 billion within the domestic oil industry would create only about 542,000 jobs in the United States. A green infrastructure investment program would create nearly four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money on oil energy resources. And again, spending on oil offers no benefits in transitioning the U.S. economy toward a low-carbon future, while perpetuating the economic and national security vulnerabilities by continuing to rely on oil for the lifeblood of our economy." [Center for American Progress, "Green Recovery," September 2008]
Investment In Renewable Energy Has Already Salvaged Many Manufacturing Facilities Closed During Economic Downturn. Across America, factories and plants abandoned by the old economy have been re-tooled and re-opened to satisfy the growing demand for new energy technologies. For instance, once hopeless manufacturing plants in Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Michigan have re-energized their communities by creating jobs and leading the charge toward a new energy future. [Bloomberg, 4/2/09; Star Tribune, 4/22/09; Grand Rapids Press, 3/6/08]
Rep. Price: "A recent study indicates that, if U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are reduced 83% by the year 2050 as professed by Waxman-Markey, all of our economic anguish will only lower global temperatures by nine hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit. Even Ralph Nader and NASA scientist James Hansen acknowledge that cap-and-trade will have almost no impact on climate." [Price Human Events op-ed, 5/26/09]
WHO: "Climate Change Will Affect, In Profoundly Adverse Ways, Some Of The Most Fundamental Determinants Of Health." According to the Sydney Morning Herald: "'Climate change will affect, in profoundly adverse ways, some of the most fundamental determinants of health: food, air, water,' the director-general of the World Health Organisation, Margaret Chan, says." [Sydney Morning Herald, 5/7/09]
American Clean Energy And Security Act Would Cut 1.2 Billion Metric Tons Of C02. According to the World Resources Institute, the American Clean Energy And Security Act would cut 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020. [World Resources Institute via Center for American Progress, 5/14/09]
American Clean Energy And Security Act Would Be The Equivalent Of Taking 500 Million Cars Off The Road. As noted by the Center for American Progress: "That translates into a cut of 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020 compared to inaction, according to a projection based on an analysis by the World Resources Institute. This is comparable to taking 500 million cars off the road, which is twice the number of U.S. cars today, and half the cars expected in the world in 2020." [Center for American Progress, 5/14/09]
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