# Code for Killing Jobs

*Published:* 2009-03-16
*Author:* Sam Parry

### Claim

> “‘Cap-and-trade’ is code for increasing taxes, killing American jobs and raising energy costs for consumers.”
> 
> – **Rep. John Boehner** (R-OH), House Minority Leader, March 9, 2009

### Truth

> Opponents of global warming action certainly have their sound bites down.
> 
> For style and efficiency, Rep. Boehner gets an A (in 17 words, he certainly makes his point). For truth-telling, he gets a big fat F.
> 
> As we’ve posted before, cap-and-trade is not a tax. It was designed explicitly to not be a tax — but rather a market-based policy that limits global warming pollution and creates economic incentives for businesses to meet or exceed those limits.
> 
> If cap-and-trade is “code” for anything, it’s unleashing green energy innovation and growing our economy.
> 
> On the jobs issue, evidence shows that capping America’s global warming pollution can be a big job creator, as we point out in our [Less Carbon, More Jobs report](http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=33427).
> 
> A cap encourages innovation and puts people to work finding the energy solutions we’ll need in a carbon constrained world. From the laboratories of innovation to the markets of entrepreneurship to the factories of manufacturing, a cap on carbon will be the starting gun to unleash a new green energy revolution (see [Why a Cap on Carbon?](http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=36571) for more details).
> 
> As for raising energy costs, that’s not necessarily so. As we’ve pointed out in our response to [FreedomWorks’ Bogus 10 claims about climate action](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2009/03/16/miscellaneous-test-comment/), an analysis of the Lieberman-Warner S. 2191 legislation by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency (EIA) projects electricity prices in the year 2020 to be 3% higher than business-as-usual. But the EIA analysis also expects electricity consumption to be almost 4% lower than it would otherwise be.
> 
> The net effect is a projected ***decrease*** of 0.7%- about $0.7-in monthly electricity bills in that year.
> 
> Rep. Boehner’s sound bite is an efficiently delivered line. He gets high marks for style, but gets it all wrong on substance.