The climate change bill under consideration by Congress ignores the impacts oneveryone who uses or produces petroleum fuels like gasoline, diesel and naturalgas. So it will hit both households and businesses hard –everyone who uses cars,trucks, planes, trains, and tractors or the thousands of products produced ortransported using these fuels. It will create an uneven playing field for U.S. refinerswho will lose market share and jobs to foreign competitors who do not have to limittheir own greenhouse gas emissions.Higher prices:
The bill will touch every family and every business that uses oil products.According to one government analysis, the bill will raise prices to $5.10 per gallon forgasoline and $5.60 per gallon for diesel fuel.
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Less disposable income:
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA),average household energy costs could increase as much as $1,870 in 2030.
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That’s 5.3 percent of today’s average per capita disposable income.
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Fewer jobs and lower wages:
EIA’s study, as well as those commissioned by theNational Black Chamber of Commerce, the National Manufacturers Association and the American Council for Capital Formation all reach the same conclusion about jobs – that as a consequence of this legislation, there will be more than 2 million fewer jobsin 2030, even with new green jobs created.
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One analysis expects the wages of workerswho remain employed to fall and for the loss to become greater over time.
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Anotheranalysis shows that the unbalanced approach of the bill by itself will produce additionalunemployment, destroying more than 2 million jobs nationwide as soon as 2011.
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For South Carolina this could mean a loss of 23,460 jobs over the next couple of years. If those jobs were lost today, it would increase South Carolina’s unemploymentrate from 12.1 percent to 13.1 percent.
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Less wealth:
One analysis projects the bill would reduce aggregate gross domesticproduct (GDP) by $9.4 trillion over the next 26 years.
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For South Carolina this couldmean a reduction of as much as $3 billion in our state’s gross state product (GSP)on average over this period.
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Less energy security:
U.S. refiners will have to buy a disproportionate share of newallowances, increasing their costs and giving a competitive advantage to non-U.S.refiners. One analysis concludes that as a result of this legislation, fuel imports willdouble by 2030 from what they would have been.
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Contrary to the bill’s intention,America will be less energy secure.
Little environmental gain, big economic pain:
Even the federal Government AccountabilityOffice (GAO) warns that cap and trade legislation could make American companies lessable to compete internationally and could drive American jobs overseas to countries that do not limit greenhouse gas emissions, thus driving up international emissionsenough to offset or overwhelm U.S. cuts.
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South Carolina
The people of
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Learn more at
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will be hurt by the Waxman-MarkeyClimate Bill.
1 U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Energy Market andEconomic Impacts of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energyand Security Act of 2009,” August 4, 2009.2 API calculation based on U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysisdata.3 EIA (August 2009); CRA International (August 2009); ScienceApplications International Corporation, “Analysis of the Waxman-Markey Bill ‘The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009’ (H.R. 2454) Using the National Energy Modeling System(NEMS/ACCF-NAM2),” prepared for the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation,August 12, 2009.4 CRA International, “Impact on the Economy of the AmericanClean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454),” preparedfor the National Black Chamber of Commerce, August 2009.5 The Heritage Foundation, “Son of Waxman-Markey: More PoliticsMakes for a More Costly Bill,” edmemo no. 2450, May 18, 2009.Revised and updated June 16, 2009.6 API calculations based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics statedata and The Heritage Foundation estimate of job losses from“Impact of the Waxman-Markey’s Climate Change Legislationon the States,” webmemo #2585, August 19, 2009.7 The Heritage Foundation, “Impact of the Waxman-MarkeyClimate Change Legislation on the States,” webmemo #2585,August 19, 2009.8 EnSys Energy, “Waxman-Markey (H.R. 2454) Refining SectorImpact Assessment,” prepared for the API, August 21, 2009.9 “Climate Change Trade Measures, Estimating Industry Effects,”U.S. GAO testimony before the Committee on Finance, U.S.Senate, July 8, 2009, pp5-6.
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