Elmendorf testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the cap-and-trade provisions of the House bill -- in which emitters of greenhouse gases would be able to buy and sell pollution credits -- would cut the nation's gross domestic product by 0.25 to 0.75 percent in 2020 compared with "what it would otherwise have been," and by 1 to 3.5 percent in 2050.Elmendorf also pointed to disruptions that would occur as Americans sought employment with industries that would benefit under a carbon cap, such as solar and wind power. "The shifts will be significant," the CBO director said. "We want to leave no misunderstanding that aggregate performance -- the fact that jobs turn up somewhere else for some people -- does not mean that there are not substantial costs borne by people, communities, firms in affected industries and affected areas. You saw that in manufacturing, and we would see that in response to changes that this legislation would produce."
Opponents of climate-change legislation seized on Elmendorf's
comments, suggesting they meant the United States would be better off
not curbing greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.Elmendorf, who called the economic downside to the House climate bill "comparatively modest," noted that climate change could impose costs on
Brownback's home state in other ways, by harming agriculture.Daniel J. Weiss, a senior fellow at the liberal think tank Center for
American Progress, pointed to a University of Massachusetts at Amherst study that concluded that the House bill would add jobs to the
overall U.S. economy.
Now folks, note the Center for American Progress nod here. Note that WaPo doesn't go to Heritage or Cato but to CAP. Does anyone know who is the man behind the curtain in CAP? Show of hands.....ok great guesses, but wrong.
George Soros. Yes, it's George Soros' organization, founded by John Podesta. Thank you American Press.
Via Memeorandum
Also read Sweetness and Light
h/t to M4GW for capitol/industry graphic
LCR: Not just George Soros but the Center for American Progress is also the beneficiary of seed money from Herbert & Marion Sandler, both extreme leftist BILLIONAIRES featured in a very funny but ultimately YANKED SNL skit that you can find here: http://patdollard.com/2008/10/it-is-here-the-banned-snl-skit-cannot-hide-from-louie/ Apparently the SNL crew didn't get the "Appropriate Content Memo: Bash REPUBLICANS Only" ENJOY!!!
ReplyDeleteIs that a one-time cut to GDP or a cut in the rate of growth? I was actually working out some numbers yesterday imagining that strict controls to cut CO2 emissions (stricter than what has been proposed) might but cut the growth rate of real per capita GDP from 1.8% to 1.5% for the next few decades. My swag is very close to the number from the article you quote.
ReplyDeleteIf it’s just a one-time reduction in GDP, that a cost of 25-75 billion a year in lost GDP, which would be a no-brainer. If it’s a slowed rate of growth over decades, we’re talking about a loss of trillions of dollars. That makes the policy debatable but still worthwhile IMHO.
The quote from your post is the beginning of my thinking about the issue: How much are we willing to sacrifice now to prevent unclear costs in the future possibly amounting to tens of trillions of dollars. That’s a straightforward time-value-of-money problem, but we don’t know for sure how much impact drastic measures now will have on those future costs.
@ LA - LMAO, how did Pat get his hands on that? I wish that I could embed it, I would put it up here.
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ReplyDelete@ CJ - I believe that the report points to a slower rate of growth over decades. Good points.
ReplyDeleteTo suggest that all the millions of jobs that will be lost under cap and trade can just be moved elsewhere is ridiculous. For many of these people, these jobs are their lives. For many miners it is all they have ever known. Do we really think these people will be easily transferred into the new jobs we "hope" will be created by this bill? I didn't think so. Visit http://tiny.cc/pxIgi to join the conversation and voice opposition to this devastating legislation.
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