The Congressional Budget Office is the agency that gets to decide the fiscal impact that Congressional action will have on federal spending and revenue.  Yesterday they issued a report stating the Kerry-Lieberman “American Power Act” will cut the deficit by $19 billion.  Of course, it has to increase spending by $732 billion and raise taxes by $751 billion to “save” the federal government $19 billion.  For a federal government that never lives within its means, I have a hard time believing that they will hit a relatively small 2.5% surplus target based on these estimates.

But even if they do, it’s not as if those taxes and costs have no impact outside of the walls of Congress.  The American Power Act, better known by its street name “Cap and Trade”, creates a carbon market that dumps considerable costs on the private sector at the worst possible time.  The goal is to reduce emissions 17% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.  This is accomplished by auctioning greenhouse gas emission allowances to polluters that they must purchase for the right to continue producing widgets and employing people to do it.  As if the manufacturing sector hasn’t been hammered enough.  For Indiana, the majority of climate change legislation that has been put forth will have devastating affects on our already stifled economy and the APA is no exception.

Indiana ranks #6 in the nation in coal production and #3 in the nation in coal usage, over 95 percent of all of the electricity used in Hoosier land is generated from coal. The facts are could not be more clear– Indiana is a coal state.  So what does that mean for you?   Simply stated, any legislation that threatens the production of energy from coal will be devastating to families, businesses and communities in our state.

According to a study by the Institute for Energy Research, the Kerry-Lieberman bill would destroy roughly 522,000 American jobs in 2015, rising to over 5.1 million jobs by 2050.  Individual households would be faced with an additional gross annual burden of $125.9 billion dollars per year, or $1,042 per household.   These costs are astounding when you realize that this legislation does very little to help the environment.  Even if the legislation achieves the savings that CBO predicts, that hardly represents the full and devastating economic impact that the APA will bring.

At a time when Indiana continues to grapple with record unemployment and the after effects of a devastating economic downturn, the last thing Hoosiers need now is federal infringement that will drive-up energy costs for working families and struggling businesses, we can take a stand by calling Senator Bayh at 202-224-5623 and Senator Lugar at 202-224-4814 and tell them to oppose the Kerry-Lieberman “American Power Act.”