Free Market Coalition Urges Against Carbon Tax

WASHINGTON D.C. – The American Energy Alliance was joined today by 19 other free market organizations in a joint letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor urging a floor vote on the concurrent resolution, H. Con Res. 24, expressing the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the United States economy. The coalition stands in adamant opposition to a carbon tax, as it will raise energy prices and put an unnecessary burden on the American people.

“A carbon tax would increase energy prices by design, exacerbating pain at the pump and raising the price of electricity and home heating fuels,” the letter states. “The poorest Americans would be hit the hardest because they spend the largest share of their income on energy. People on fixed incomes would take a terrible financial hit as they would be forced to pay more for energy.

“According to a recent study by the National Association of Manufacturers, under a popular carbon tax proposal, output could drop by as much as 15 percent in energy-intensive sectors of our economy and 7.7 percent in non-energy intensive sectors, destroying millions of jobs. Even the Europeans are moving away from deliberately making energy more expensive as the economic toll from their disastrous policies becomes clearer. The U.S. should learn from these failed policies, not embrace them.”

The other signatories of the letter are:

60 Plus Association
American Commitment
American Conservative Union
Americans for Limited Government
Americans for Prosperity
Americans for Tax Reform
American Tradition Institute
Caesar Rodney Institute
Competitive Enterprise Institute
FreedomWorks
Freedom Action
Frontiers of Freedom
George C. Marshall Institute
Heartland Institute
Heritage Action
Independent Women’s Forum
National Center for Public Policy Research
Positive Growth Alliance
Taxpayers Protection Alliance

To read the full text of the letter, click here (PDF).
To read the carbon tax study from the Institute for Energy Research, click here.

###