What Will Cap & Trade Mean To Seniors?
June 24th, 2009 by Skip McGrath
The House of Representatives is rushing again –this time it’s on the Cap & Trade or what many call the Cap & Tax bill.
The measure imposes a cap-and-trade system that will require companies to buy carbon emissions permits from the federal government. It also seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent in 2020, by 42 percent in 2030, and by 83 percent in 2050. Carbon emission permits is a fancy name for a tax. So why do we care if energy companies are taxed? First of all its not energy companies –it is every user of any type of carbon based energy. Gas, heating oil, diesel oil used by farmers, natural gas for the home and business.
If you look at the total energy usage of the United States it breaks down as follows:
Wind, Solar, Geothermal and Hydroelectric — 4%
Nuclear — 2%
Carbon (Gas, oil, coal, etc.) 94%
So basically the government will impose taxes that will start out low and increase steadily over the next ten years on 94% of all the energy used in the US. Of course, the percentage of non-carbon energy will increase, but not enough to make any serious impact for probably another 20-30 years. In the meantime, those of us who are retired, or will retire in the next few years, will pay higher costs for gas, heating oil, electricity and basically any energy we use.
Republicans are pretty united in opposition to the plan but there are not enough of them to stop it. Democrats are somewhat split. Congressmen from farm states are pressing for an exemption for farmers. As energy is the single highest cost element for farmers, some of them predict that food costs could rise as much as 40% over the next few years just because of the higher energy costs. Smaller family farmers fear they will be run out of business.
I don’t know what the hurry is other than Congress wants to get this done so they can go on vacation. Since energy is so critical to our economy and the economy is struggling, it would seem that some caution is in order.
Cleary we need some fixes to how we use energy but once again the Congress is pushing something with little public debate. Unless you want your energy rates to increase as much as 50% over the next ten years, call or email your congressperson and tell them to slow down. We don’t need this bill this weekend. Lets take our time and figure out an energy plan that won’t lengthen the recession and hurt seniors and those on fixed incomes the most.
So if you want this slowed down, contact your congressperson right away and let them know you are a senior who doesn’t want to pay higher utility rates for the next 20 years. Here is the link to find and email your congress member: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
