Day: March 3, 2009

Green utility CEO says Obama plan is wrong

The Charlotte Observer reported today that,

Duke Energy says Carolinas electricity rates would rise by at least 13 percent under President Obama’s plan to address climate change by auctioning off carbon credits…

… Duke CEO Jim Rogers, who supports the carbon cap, says Obama is wrong to insist that those allowances be initially auctioned to carbon emitters. Rogers calls an auction a “carbon tax” that would be passed on to consumers, with most of the burden placed on coal-dependent states such as the Carolinas.

“He’s going to create a market that’s going to dramatically drive up the costs for allowances,” Rogers said Monday. “It’s going to be a feeding frenzy.”

Allowances auctioned for $15 each would raise Carolinas rates 13 percent in 2012, when the system could go into effect, Duke estimates. A $30 auction price would raise Carolinas rates 27 percent, it says.

Obama’s proposed budget assumes allowances would go for $20 each.

Apparently as comic relief, the Charlotte Observer offered a response from the greens:

“He’s doing what the utilities are going to try to do – scare people,” said Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

As you know, of course, only the greens are allowed to “scare people.”

Cap-and-trade a ‘permanent tax increase’

A new report from the George C. Marshall Institute says that cap-and-trade will operate as a permanent tax on American families.

Based on last year’s Lieberman-Warner bill that failed in the Senate, the study estimates that the average American household would pay as much as $1,437 more annually by 2015.

Check out my column “Obama’s Climate Rip-off” to see the implications of Obama’s budget proposal on just your electric bill.

Unions attack free trade through climate

Carbon Control News reported this morning that the United Steelworkers union is

is exploring a hybrid policy that would combine a cap-and-trade scheme for utilities and other domestic sectors, while narrowly applying an excise carbon tax on domestic and foreign manufacturers to avoid “leakage” of jobs and GHG emissions to countries with lax environmental policies…

The model envisioned by the USW would apply an excise tax on manufactured products, based on the GHGs emitted during production. In order to spur GHG reductions, the taxes would be levied on GHGs in excess of a predetermined cap that could be lowered periodically to meet the emissions-reduction targets President Obama has set forth; the taxes also could increase over time to provide further incentive for manufacturers to clean up their processes, according to sources. To ensure domestic and foreign manufacturers are treated the same, the tax would be levied on importers of foreign products and rebated on exported products, similar to the value added tax (VAT) applied to an array of products in many countries.

Democrat lawmakers supporting the idea, according to Carbon Control News, include Reps. John Larson (D-CT), Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Pete Stark (D-CA).

Just what we need during the most significant global economic calamity in 75 years — anti-trade policies.

Take action:

Contact your congressional representative as well as Reps. Larson, McDermott and Stark and tell them that global trade is the path to peace and prosperity while junk science-based tariffs can only lead to global economic stagnation and international ill-will.