Cap and Trade: “It’s Out of Control”
Nicolas Loris /
I’m not critical of cap-and-trade. But it has to be used in a targeted and disciplined way, and what has happened is it’s gotten out of control.”
Those are the words of former Democratic Senator and current president of the United Nations Foundation Timothy Wirth, who also mentioned, “The Republicans are right — it’s a cap-and-tax bill.”
Those are strong words coming from a man who served as a climate change negotiator for the Clinton administration and during his tenure in the Senate focused on environmental issues, particularly global climate change and population stabilization.
But “out of control” is exactly how we should describe the cap and trade debate. It’s energy tax of historic proportions. The current Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill, if signed into law, will amount to $9.4 trillion of lost income, 2.5 million lost jobs, $5.0 trillion of additional national debt, and $5.7 trillion in new taxes that will buy no more than a 0.2 degree (Celsius) moderation in world temperature increases by 2100 and no more than a 0.05 degree reduction by 2050.