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“Look at the European experience,” said Ebell. “European companies that supported the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) are now calling for an end to the resulting economic damage.”

According to a January 21 article in the Financial Times, the European Roundtable of Industrialists has sent a letter to the European Union Commission warning that the ETS threatens to destroy the competitiveness of European industry.

“The claim that cap and trade will create many ‘green collar’ jobs overlooks the massive job losses caused by draconian energy rationing policies,” said Ebell. “Cap-and-trade would be a great economic stimulus package – for China, India and Mexico.”
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“This study proves that the pending bill will be a massive weight on an economy that is barely treading water,” said Bruce Josten, executive vice president of government affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “All consumers and businesses would face steep increases in energy costs, leading to a spike in the cost of goods and services throughout the U.S. economy.”

The study concludes that by 2030, natural gas and electricity costs will increase by more than 50 percent and motor fuels costs by 78 cents a gallon. Taken together, the combined effects of increased energy costs and dollars spent on carbon reductions will force industry to reduce productivity.
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Wisconsin would be hit hard because we are so dependant on coal to generate electricity. Increased cost to generate this power would be passed on to consumers and to businesses. Wisconsin has several industries that are energy intensive including: papermaking, brewing, foundries and heavy manufacturing. NAM predicts thousands of jobs will be lost and utility prices will increase dramatically. Their predictions include the following:

-An increase in electric rates of up to 60% by the year 2030;
-An increase of up to 79% for natural gas by the year 2030;
-An increase of 26% in gasoline prices;
-Loss of disposable income of $881- $1432 per household each year.
- A loss of state economic output of between $6-8 billion to $9.3 billion per year.
-Job loss of between 41,600 and 56,700 lost jobs by 2030.
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Wait a minute, some of our readers will say. You're just quoting talking points from the right-wing corporate fascists sputter sputter Halliburton Cheney! Actually, while other think tanks have done notable work analyzing the impact of cap-and-trade systems on the American economy, the figures above come from the Brookings Institution, a center-left think tank in Washington, D.C.

However, these numbers tend to corroborate the analyses of other think tanks. Cap-and-trade proponents scorned a report from the George C. Marshall Institute when it was released in March, but the Brookings analysis matches closely to Marshall's:

“Estimated GDP losses vary widely, from a 0.3 percent-0.5 percent to 3 percent drop in GDP below the business-as-usual projections in 2015 and a 1 percent to 10 percent drop in 2050. The timeframes of new technology development and growth in existing clean sources of energy, availability of offsets (domestic, international), and banking of allowances are likely to account for most of these differences in GDP costs estimates.”

The Marshall report, based on independent analyses of the Senate version of cap-and-trade sponsored by Joe Lieberman and Mark Warner, gives a range of results that into which the Brookings conclusions fall, both in the near and long terms. The Marshall report went into detail on the potential for job losses as well. Depending on the exact structure of the cap-and-trade system, net job losses by 2015 would be between 850,000 to 1.8 million lost employment opportunities. By 2030, that range goes up to 3-4 million potential jobs lost, as a net. One of the studies predicts a net job loss of over seven million by 2050, which would certainly account for a 2.5 percent drop in GDP.

The Marshall report went further in its economic predictions. It assesses the cost per household of energy price increases, which producers will pass to their customers, at an escalating rate as caps force producers away from abundant sources of energy, such as coal. Those costs – which Marshall calls a “tax” – start at $1100 per household per year, increasing to a range of $1400-$2000 by 2015, and peaking at $2000-$3000 by 2050.
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