This is Getting Ridiculous
June 26, 2009 | Posted by Sam Parry in Economic Scare Tactics
Claim:
"This will impose a Pelosi global warming tax… almost $3000 per family"
– Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), 6/26/09
"[The American Clean Energy and Security Act is a] Transfer of wealth bill .. [Americans will see] $1300 and $3100 in bills .. The taxpayer is the big loser"
– Rep. Marcia Blackburn (R-TN), 6/26/09
Truth:
OH FOR PETE'S SAKE.
How many times do we have to correct this falsehood? The claim that ACES will cost families "$3,100" was first made in a March press release from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The NRCC said its number was based on an MIT analysis of cap and trade legislation. But John Reilly, the author of the MIT study, wrote a letter to the NRCC telling them their math was incorrect.
Reilly's comments on the $3100 claim: "It's just wrong. It's wrong in so many ways it's hard to begin." And yet, people keep using it.
Here are the accurate figures: an EPA analysis puts the cost of a carbon cap on at $88-$140 per household per year over the life of the program – or about a dime a day per person. The Congressional Budget Office did a separate analysis and got similar results. Both studies show we could get all the benefits of a carbon cap for less than the cost of a postage stamp per day per family.
2 Responses
Comment from saintlymic
July 1st, 2009 at 4:11 pm
You can keep on mocking Republicans all you want, but we will see in two years just how much this is going to cost the average American citizen.
Do you even pay energy bills?
If the energy bills keep rising as they are doing now then the Republican figures may seriously turn out to be true!
We could actually see an increase of over $250.00 a month in the next two years if the Nobama administration keeps changing things the way they keep changing things!
Pingback from Climate 411 » More Fuzzy Math on the Costs of Climate Legislation - Blogs & Podcasts - Environmental Defense Fund
September 16th, 2009 at 11:42 am
[...] Opponents of climate change legislation are now firing up the fuzzy math machine again, dividing that figure by the number of people in the country and concluding that cap and trade will mean high costs for households. Sound familiar? That's how House Minority Leader John Boehner arrived at his roundly dismissed $3,100 figure. [...]