Will Congress Switch Off Your Lights?

Read this Washington Times article by my husband about how the Waxman-Markey bill will raise your home energy bill by $1,500.

Under Waxman-Markey, the economic pain would be severe, indeed. President Obama's own aides have admitted that it could cost hardworking Americans up to $2 trillion. The burden, moreover, would fall disproportionately on the poor, who spend a greater proportion of their income on energy - 26 percent compared to a median-income family that spends 4 percent of its earnings on energy. It would also affect the South and Midwest much more than the West Coast and Northeast. In fact, the effect would be a wealth transfer from the South and Midwest to the West Coast and Northeast. Overall, the bill would cost the average American family $1,500 in increased energy costs.

Those increased energy costs would hit businesses hard, resulting in an average loss of 1.1 million jobs a year. And that is after counting the effect of so-called "green jobs," which would largely be temporary and, according to a recent study, pretty low-paying - most green jobs that have been created to date pay below the average wage.