PresiChimpoleon Buckwheat's Failure - Do-Nothing DemocRATs Add $560 in Taxes to Every American
- From: Patriot Games <Patriot@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:50:40 -0400
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/climate_change_bill_costs/2009/06/28/229501.html
Annual Cost of Climate Change Bill: $560 Per American
Sunday, June 28, 2009
The passage of U.S. carbon legislation is likely to result in
increased oil imports, declining investment and the closure of large
refining plants in the United States by the country?s largest oil
companies, according to experts interviewed by Bloomberg.com.
Under the Waxman-Markey climate bill that passed the U.S. House
Friday, domestic companies would have to buy allowances for carbon
dioxide spewed from their plants and from vehicles when motorists burn
their fuel, Bloomberg reports. Foreign oil companies, though, need
permits only for the latter, which ConocoPhillips Chief Executive
Officer Jim Mulva said would create a competitive imbalance.
The measure, a key priority for President Barack Obama, squeaked
through the House on Friday, 219-212, with 44 Democrats voting against
it.
?It will lead to the opportunity for foreign sources to bring in
transportation fuels at a lower cost, which will have an adverse
impact to our industry, potential shutdown of refineries and
investment and, ultimately, employment,? Mulva told Bloomberg.
Houston-based ConocoPhillips has the second-largest U.S. refining
capacity.
Not everyone with a background in the energy business agrees, though.
T. Boone Pickens, the legendary oilman who has been pushing an
alternative energy plan over the last year, called the House passage
of the legislation ?important first steps in advancing the use of
renewable energy in our nation?s power grid. The American public wants
this, and they recognize the important role a Green Bank, Renewable
Electricity Standard (RES) and transmission provisions will have in
revitalizing our economy,? Pickens said.
?But we cannot lose site of the work that needs to be done, and that
is focusing on legislation that will address once and for all our
ever-increasing dependence on foreign oil,? Pickens said in a
statement released Friday. ?It?s a national security and economic
threat that we must face. We have to focus on replacing our foreign
oil/diesel/gasoline use with abundant domestic fuels such as natural
gas.?
On Sunday, though, leading GOP senators said they would fight the
cap-and-trade legislation with every available resource.
?This bill coming out of the House is going nowhere in the Senate,?
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on NBC?s ?Meet the Press.?
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance
Committee, said the House package would cost jobs and made the case
for an international approach.
?We?ve got to have an international agreement so we have a level
playing field,? he said in an appearance on ABC?s ?This Week.?
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appearing on ?Fox News
Sunday,? called the measure a jobs killer and argued it would lead to
electricity rate hikes.
?If we do have a global warming problem, and many people believe we
do, we need to target it on a global basis,? he said, suggesting the
need to address foreign polluters like China and India.
Ironically, though, foreign producers of fossil fuels may actually
benefit under the Democrat-backed plan now before the Senate. Imported
gasoline would be 10 cents cheaper for each dollar in carbon costs
tacked on to domestic gas, according to energy consulting firm Wood
Mackenzie in Houston. Instead of reducing dependence on overseas
energy suppliers, Americans would be more dependent than ever, Clayton
Mahaffey, an analyst at RedChip Cos. in Maitland, Florida, told
Bloomberg. Imports would rise dramatically.
?They?ll be searching the globe for refined products that don?t carry
the same level of carbon costs,? said Mahaffey, a former Exxon Corp.
refinery manager.
The cost to domestic fuel production in the United States will be
enormous.
The equivalent of one in six U.S. refineries probably would close by
2020 as the cost of carbon allowances erases profits, according to the
American Petroleum Institute, a Washington trade group known as API.
Carbon permits would add 77 cents a gallon to the price of gasoline,
said Russell Jones, the API?s senior economic adviser.
?Because it?s going to be more expensive to produce the stuff,
refiners will slow down production and cut back on inventories to
squeeze every penny of profit they can from the system,? said Geoffrey
Styles, founder of GSW Strategy Group LLC in Vienna, Virginia. ?We
will end up with less domestic product on the market and a greater
reliance on imports, all of which means higher, more volatile prices.?
Ordinary Americans will bear the brunt of these costs, experts told
Bloomberg. Drivers, airlines and trucking companies would pay an
additional $178 billion annually, or about $560 for each man, woman
and child in the U.S., according to the API, whose 400 members include
Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil and the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell
Plc, Europe?s largest oil company.
?That kind of price impact would significantly hurt the
competitiveness of U.S. refiners versus importers,? said Glenn
McGinnis, chief executive officer at Arizona Clean Fuels Yuma, a
Phoenix-based company that?s attempting to build the nation?s first
new refinery in three decades.
.
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