Cap-and-Trade Still Simmering

As the Obamacare debate rages this week, we need to also keep our eyes on Cap 'n Trade which is still simmering on the back burner.

Gene Hall, Director of Public Relations with the Texas Farm Bureau, has a piece out on the detrimental effects of this bill. I've posted lots on cap and trade, even researching what each Senator has said on the record regarding how they might vote. It will be interesting to see how that stands up.

Remember the letter from Randolph Blackburn? He's the lifelong Louisiana resident who had to move to Texas to keep a job in the oil industry. He wrote a letter published in the Houma Today expressing great fear for the oil industry in both Texas and Louisiana. He said:

I’ve seen both the ups and downs over the years but I’ve never been so fearful for my industry, my home state of Louisiana and my country.

The proposed cap-and-trade legislation will gut well-paying oil and gas jobs in Louisiana. The jobs will be in our refineries, fabrication shops, oilfield-service companies, oil companies, ports and related industries.

Add the income and taxes we will lose and this bill will surely bankrupt the state and its people. What will take the place of all these lost jobs? All of us will be affected.

Remember this Heritage Foundation article about the real costs of Cap and Trade?

Remember this awesome dissection of Waxman-Markey by Jimmie Bise at American Issues Project? And my own dissection of the bill where the government will regulate your light bulbs and outdoor lighting, tell you how to plant trees, and inspect your home.

Back to Gene Hall's piece on the Texas Farm Bureau site; Hall points out the detrimental costs cap-and-trade will have on the entire agricultural industry which directly affects every American. In fact, anything that deals with fossil fuels will go up, which is just about everything. Hall explains that the average projected cost increase for each American family is over $1700. The U.S. will "lose economic activity because we will be pricing ourselves out of the market with this tax built into everything we produce."

Hall goes on to point out the fact that farmers won't be able to sell their crops and in the end we will be forced to import our food from other countries. Hall says, "It may take a few years to sort it out, but there is very little question that passing cap-and-trade will eventually make the U.S. an importer of most of its food." Other countries will gladly fill the vacuum.

Read his whole post here.

So, on top of these higher food and energy costs, we'll also be paying lots more for health insurance (for inferior and rationed care), and we'll be dodging Pelosi's VAT, as explained here. And the "best news" is that we're going to do all this in a severe recession. Are you kidding me?!

As the insurance battle rages, remember, they're probably hoping you aren't paying attention to cap-and-trade simmering there on the back burner. Keep the heat on and contact your Senators.