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.
$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!