The U.S. Treasury reported in documents released Sept. 18, 2009 that cap-and-trade costs to combat “global warming” could hit $300 billion annually, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group in Washington, D.C. dedicated t
o the principles of free enterprise and limited government.
The new information, obtained by CEI Senior Fellow Christopher Horner through a Freedom of Information Act request, also reveals that Treasury officials estimate “domestic policies to address climate change and the related issues of energy security and affordability” will involve significant costs … possibly up to several percentage points of annual GDP (i.e. equal in size to the corporate income tax).”
“… (these documents) explain why the administration initially sought to keep its internal aspirations and expectations from the public: the cost of a cap-and-trade plan to businesses and consumers will be enormous,” said Horner.
“This candid perspective of what could prove to be the biggest tax increase in our nation’s history now must be openly debated before the American public,” he said.
CEI reports on a variety of free enterprise issues at www.cei.org.
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