Waxman-Markey: $9 Trillion GDP Hit

by William Yeatman on July 31, 2009

Ben Lieberman, an energy policy scholar at the Heritage Fondation, testified yesterday before the House and Senate Western Caucus, on the economic impact of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act, a cap-and-trade energy tax that passed through the House of Representatives on June 26th.

Here’s a sobering excerpt:

“Overall, Waxman-Markey reduces gross domestic product by an average of $393 billion dollars annually between 2012 and 2035, and cumulatively by $9.4 trillion dollars.  In other words, the nation will be $9.4 trillion dollars poorer with Waxman-Markey than without it.”

To read the full testimony, click here.

Dan Fernandes August 2, 2009 at 11:06 am

$393 billion is less than 4% of the economy and is much too low of an estimate. If energy is 12% of the economy and you intend to make energy five times as expensive by using solar power, then that is 48% of the economy you must displace. So, Mr. Lieberman, your estimate is low by more than an order of magnitude!

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post: