Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI), ranking Republican of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment and leading opponent of cap-and-trade, is urging Treasury Secretary Geithner to fully release documents that detail the alarming costs of a cap-and-trade regime. In response to a FOIA request, Administration officials deliberately censored figures that specify the annual costs cap-and-tax will impose. The Treasury documents appear to confirm what Upton has been saying all along, that cap-and-trade is a national energy tax that will devastate American families.
The Waxman-Markey energy bill, which would impose a cap on carbon emissions and set up a pollution-credit trading system, is an attack on poor communities that rely on cheap, coal-fired electricity, Shimkus said.
“The day I have dreaded has arrived,” Shimkus said in his opening statement of the House Energy and Commerce Committee meeting this afternoon. “Why is it that the wealthy parts of our country continue to attack the lifestyles of the rural poor?”
As it turns out though, organizations who actually study the implications of legislation on low-income families disagree with Shimkus entirely. In a letter Friday from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to Chairmen Waxman and Markey, CBPP wrote (PDF):
While the Congressional Budget Office estimate will ultimately be determinative, our estimate is that setting aside 15 percent of the allowance value for refunds and tax credits for consumers, together with other provisions in the bill setting aside free allowances that the companies receiving them must use for consumer relief, would ensure that the average household in the bottom 20 percent of the population would not experience any reduction in the purchasing power of its budget. We strongly commend you for including this protection for low-income households in your legislation, which we hope the Energy and Commerce Committee will approve.
I’m going to go ahead and trust the professionals on this one. Shame on Mr. Shimkus for trying to mislead his colleagues and constituents.
