Obama proposals cap growth

The Washington Times discusses cap-and-trade energy taxes with Myron Ebell and Iain Murray. 

Waxman and Markey blithely set targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions without any serious analysis or even awareness of the colossal costs of energy rationing to American consumers, workers and industry,” said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global-warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

”Beyond these enormous economic costs, Waxman-Markey would put big government in charge of how much energy people can use. It would be the biggest government intervention in people’s lives since the Second World War, which was the last time people had to have rationing coupons in order to buy a gallon of gas,” Mr. Ebell wrote in a CEI analysis of the bill.

But the deep damage Mr. Obama’s cap-and-trade plan would inflict on our economy goes beyond its draconian carbon taxes. Now we learn that the plan could likely start a trade war. “The bill as drafted clears the way for carbon protectionism,” said CEI senior fellow Iain Murray. “It envisages ‘rebates’ to companies that have to pay higher costs than their international competitors, which amounts to illegal state aid under World Trade Organization rules.”

“Taken together, these provisions (in the cap-and-trade bill) represent the first shot in what is likely to prove a disastrous carbon trade war,” CEI’s Mr. Murray said.

Read the full article at the Washington Times.