Claim:

The American Clean Energy and Security Act "would be the biggest tax in American history" – Rep. Pete Sessions, R-TX, 6/26/09

Truth:

Wrong. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Congressional Budget Office each analyzed the American Clean Energy and Security Act separately.

The EPA found a carbon cap would cost the average American household as little as $88-$140 per household per year over the life of the program – or about a dime a day per person.

The CBO got similar results; it found we could get all the benefits of a carbon cap for less than the cost of a postage stamp per day per family. Anyone who thinks that's the biggest tax increase in America's history needs to brush up on their history.

The Wall Street Journal mistakenly accused the CBO of not considering the full range of costs to the economy, but all the costs they cite as missing were fully taken into account by the study.

What's more, neither study looked at the costs of inaction — the astronomical costs of fixing the damage that will be caused by unchecked climate change.