Chilling Growth
June 5, 2008 | By Nathaniel Ward
Those urging Congress to pass the Lieberman-Warner bill say it would slow global warming by capping carbon dioxide emissions.
But a number of studies predict severe consequences in higher energy costs for the U.S. economy and consumers. Studies from The Heritage Foundation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Charles River Associates and even the Environmental Protection Agency share this dire assessment of the cap-and-tax legislation.
In 2025 alone, Heritage’s study concluded, Lieberman–Warner would cost the nation at least 500,000 jobs and cut economic output by at least $125 billion — for little to no environmental benefit.
Heritage experts circulated the following chart to media outlets to help spread the word about the legislation’s harmful consequences:
Our experts have also taken to the airwaves to help educate the American people.
Central planning makes a comeback
Over the past two decades, government has abandoned much of its central planning of wireless communications. They realized that consumers, not bureaucrats, knew better what wireless services were needed.
During the same period, Heritage regulation expert James Gattuso explains, “the number of Americans with wireless has grown from two to 255 million, while the devices they use have transmogrified from brick phones to multipurpose units that do everything but the user’s laundry.”
But the Federal Communications Commission seems poised to return to the bad old days of command-and-control policies issued from on high. The latest auction of wireless spectrum comes with a catch, Gattuso notes: “reportedly, the licensee will have to use the spectrum to offer free broadband service, with a network to be built out on a timetable specified by the FCC, and with content that doesn’t offend the regulators in Washington.”
“The latest plan goes even farther to displace market (and consumer) preferences with those of regulators,” Gattuso writes, arguing that the FCC should reject the plan.
Other Heritage work of note
- Entrepreneurship. Liberals have often argued that American workers are worse off because wages have not kept up with productivity growth. But Heritage economist James Sherk argues that this analysis both neglects other forms of compensation like health benefits and reflects an inconsistency in government measurements. “Looking at everything workers earn—not just cash wages—and adjusting both series with the same measure of inflation shows that productivity and compensation have risen in tandem.”
- Education. Heritage education expert Dan Lips draws our attention to a new handout to labor groups and the environmental lobby—disguised with rhetoric about education. Congress is now considering a $6 billion school construction program whose objective is not to improve education at all. Instead, its proponents argue that the program will create construction jobs—paid at inflated union wage rates—and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To top it off, the law would impose new regulations on local schools and increase the federal bureaucracy.
- Energy, Environment and Entrepreneurship. The Lieberman-Warner cap-and-tax global warming bill would extend harmful government wage regulations, based on flawed government data, into the private sector, Heritage’s James Sherk has discovered. “Private construction has nothing to do with the purpose of prevailing wage laws, which is to prevent the federal government's purchasing power from driving down wages,” he explains.
- Entrepreneurship. “It’s extraordinary how liberals understand the power of economic incentives, but only when it suits their purposes,” Heritage economist J.D. Foster writes. “They propose higher tobacco taxes to discourage smoking. They propose higher taxes on liquor to discourage drinking. They propose vastly higher taxes through cap-and-trade contraptions to reduce carbon emissions. So what do they expect will happen when they raise income tax rates?”
In other news
- Because of an oversight, the farm bill President Bush vetoed last month was missing certain language. The House of Representatives has passed the complete version of the bill; the Senate has yet to act. President Bush is expected to veto the revised legislation.
- Voters in Elk Point, S.D. have approved a plan to allow the nation’s first new oil refinery in 32 years.
- Congress has rightly stripped the increase in unemployment benefits from the pending Iraq funding bill.
- The California Supreme Court has refused to stay its decision creating a right to same-sex “marriage” in that state. Supporters of traditional marriage between one man and one woman argued that California voters may overturn the ruling with a ballot measure amending the state constitution. The referendum qualified for the November ballot this week.
- Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has accumulated sufficient delegates to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend these or any other events at Heritage please RSVP at Heritage’s website. Or you can view these events live online. All times are Eastern.
- On Friday, June 6 at noon, author Peter Schweizer debunks the liberal myth that conservatives are mean-spirited, greedy, selfish malcontents with authoritarian tendencies.
- On Monday, June 9 at noon, authors Tara Ross and Joseph Smith discuss George Washington’s view of the separation of church and state and the role religion plays in society.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
