Palin on cap-and-trade: Job-killer

posted at 10:11 am on July 14, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Sarah Palin takes on Barack Obama on his home turf, so to speak, by penning an op-ed in the Washington Post.  On Sunday, Obama’s own Post column attempted to defend his stimulus package and plead for patience, promising that new jobs will arrive over the next two years.  Two days later, Palin assails his cap-and-trade bill as a job killer that will wipe out many more jobs than Porkulus could ever create:

American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president’s cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.

There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn’t lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America’s economy.

Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.

In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.

The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.

Unfortunately, the ironic beauty will only become apparent after cap-and-trade does severe damage to our economy and standard of living.  Even then, the most ardent liberals won’t admit a problem at all, because the push for cap-and-trade has other motivations than just lowering CO2 in the atmosphere.  Those pushing cap-and-trade and making hysterical pronouncements about having only 96 months until the end of the world want to push people into statist control of energy production.  They’re not worried about falling standards of living; most of them think we exploit too many natural resources anyway, and that less energy and less of everything would bring about the kind of harmony they desire — and want to impose on everyone else.

We need to make all of this clear.  Cap-and-trade rations energy production, which means there will be less of it for a long time.  Alternatives are not ready for the kind of mass production that would allow a complete replacement of energy, and probably won’t be for decades, if ever in some cases (notably wind power, as GreenChoice showed and as T. Boone Pickens finally realized).  That means a lower standard of living that will impact America regressively, with the lowest income earners getting hit the hardest.  The drain on the economy from high energy prices means less jobs and higher retail prices for goods and services, again a regressive consequence of energy rationing.

Obama and his Utopian allies promise that government will help close the gap by offering more services to the unemployed and the poor at the expense of the “rich”.  What will that do?  It will further handicap the economy by keeping capital out of the markets.  Even worse, it will vastly expand the dependent class in America who have to go on the dole to survive.  And many of those ardent liberals will be pretty happy with that outcome, too.

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