On Friday, the House passed the president’s cap and trade legislation. This policy will cost the American people dearly in energy prices, in lost jobs, in hobbling an already
faltering economy.

Congress and the president are rushing in, ostensibly to do something about anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Never mind the fact that the more the details are examined, the weaker the arguments get for blaming any possible global warming on man-made carbon dioxide. Nonetheless, they are still willing to gamble our nation’s future with this risky political policy.

At its fundamental base, cap and trade is one more huge federal power grab. This time it is not a specific industry, or a particular business, Instead, it is a crippling new tax, cutting across all sectors of our culture.

In January 2008, then candidate Barack Obama directly admitted what he expects from cap and trade when he said: “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket…”.

Is there more that need be said? Cap and trade is a vast new tax, designed to crush energy use by pricing the basic parts of our daily lives out of reach for some and making it more difficult for all.

In the best of economic times this might be endurable. With today’s economic realities cap and trade is economic and political insanity. Congress should know better. The people of this country should demand better.

State Sen. Kevin Lundberg
Berthoud

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