AFP: Tell AZ Senators No Global Warming Tax

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY

Stop the $1.2 trillion global warming tax!

The U.S. Senate will begin debate next week on a massive new regulatory scheme known as “cap-and-trade,” a phrase the Washington Post described as a “pithy marketing gimmick.” It’s a tricky way to hide a massive energy tax hike by hiding it behind a complex regulatory scheme. The cap-and-trade bill, sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John Warner and known as Lieberman-Warner, will increase federal revenue by $1.2 TRILLION dollars over just the first 7 years that it is in effect, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Senator McCain is leaning towards supporting this legislation. We say leaning because we firmly believe that he can still be persuaded to vote no, which makes it crucial that you weigh in against this massive tax-and-spend bill now. Al Gore, in a little noticed 2006 interview, said that the energy tax he pushed in 1993, known as the BTU tax, was one of the leading reasons Republicans won the House in 1994. The lesson he learned was not that massive energy tax hikes are a bad idea, but rather that they have to be hidden from voters. That’s what cap-and-trade is all about. An analysis commissioned by the American Council on Capital Formation and the National Association of Manufacturers projects the economic impact of the S. 2191 by 2020 to Arizona: 23,000 to 34,000 fewer jobs, $800 to $2,600 in lower annual disposable income per household, an annual hit to Arizona GSP of between $2.6 and $3.6 billion, and much higher energy prices — 20 percent to 67 percent higher for gasoline and 23 percent to 30 percent higher for electricity. The study also found that lower-income families — people who are least able to absorb higher energy costs — will be the hardest hit. And what do we buy, environmentally, with this hit to the economy? Cap-and-trade is already failing to reduce emissions in Europe. And even if emissions targets are met, climate models show that the reductions would have only a miniscule impact on global temperature—less than 0.1 degrees Celsius in 100 years—and would not be detectable against the background of natural variation. That’s why leading climate alarmists have hailed a Kyoto-style cap-and-trade regime as just the first step of thirty to curb global economic activity, a recipe for permanently destroying the global economy. Tell Senator McCain to vote NO on the cap-and-trade energy tax! Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the nation’s premier grassroots organization committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org