Why Support Cap-and-Trade? AEA’s 10 “Best” Reasons

WASHINGTON– In honor of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works’ passage of the Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade bill, the American Energy Alliance (AEA) today released its top 10 reasons to support cap-and-trade:

10) It’ll be the largest tax increase in history and will help pay for the government takeover of health care.

9) America’s unemployment rate is only 10 percent. Higher energy prices and the resulting transfer of American businesses overseas will help us double it.

8) The U.S. has been the world’s number one economic superpower for long enough. It’s time to lie down and give someone else a turn.

7) Expensive energy is good. Really expensive energy is even better.

6) By making it more expensive to produce more of the vast amounts of American oil we have right at home and transitioning to affordable, commercial-scale alternatives that don’t exist, we can end our dependence on foreign oil in 10 years!

5) Spending billions of taxpayer dollars to create temporary, government jobs at the expense of long-term, private sector jobs not only makes perfect sense, it’ll be a boon to the nation’s struggling economy. Just look at Spain .

4) Energy is the lifeblood of the American economy – it is, literally, the capacity to do work. Hence, making American energy more expensive and less available will strengthen our economy and enhance our capacity to put Americans to work. Get it?

3) California and Massachusetts have adopted similar policies and they’re now enjoying some of the highest energy prices and unemployment rates in the nation. We need to level the playing field so every state can reap the benefits of expensive energy and abundant joblessness.

2) It will create millions of well-paying green jobs without destroying the jobs of Americans who are currently employed. Who put the green welfare provisions in there, anyway?

1) Reducing economic growth while achieving virtually no environmental benefit is simply a good idea . Don’t ask questions.