Scoring cap and trade

Washington Times:

Congress' chief scorekeeper says the global warming bill moving through Congress will either be scored as a major tax increase or a massive expansion of the federal government - and either one could give opponents substantial ammunition to complicate Democrats' efforts to pass a bill.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in a letter sent last week to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, said Democrats' approach of creating allowances for emitting greenhouse gases requires developing from scratch a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Whether the allowances are sold, as President Obama wants, and scored as a tax increase, or given away, as House Democratic leaders have suggested, and scored as "cash grants" to businesses, opponents are lining up to use CBO's conclusions as ammunition in the public relations battle over the bill.

"This is a tax increase, and what you're giving away to businesses are tax breaks," said Michael McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist involved in planning strategy for the bill. "Who's paying for all of this? It couldn't possibly be clearer - the consumers of the United States of America. Talk about feeding into a story line."

Republican leaders in Congress have argued that Democrats' approach to global warming will impose a large new cost on businesses, which will be passed on to consumers in the middle of a recession. Democrats say action is needed to avert the effects of warming and say they can mitigate some costs.

Democrats and environmentalists both said the letter is not the last word from the CBO, and Democrats said they hope to work with the agency to try to bring down the cost of the bill to the government.

...

I would rather have global warming. This bill will raise taxes without lowering the temperature a degree in 50 years. It will ruin the economy and inhibit adaptation that will be needed if the temperature does rise.