WASHINGTON   –  “Much has been made of the potential effect of climate change legislation on energy prices for Americans who heat their homes with natural gas, use electricity to power lights and appliances, and work in energy-intensive occupations like agriculture and manufacturing. 

Often overlooked, however, is the challenge cap-and-trade legislation would pose to Americans who already struggle with the high cost of fuel for their cars and trucks.  Gas prices would be dramatically affected by any new system to levy a premium on any energy source that causes emissions during its lifetime.  Gas prices (which are notoriously sensitive to price shocks, changes in global supply, and state and federal regulations) are a major concern in the debate over whether we should artificially inflate the price of American energy resources with a new tax.

Figures recently released by the Heritage Foundation suggest that the price of gasoline in Missouri would increase by 61 cents per gallon in the first 20 years of cap-and-tax.  The same study says Missouri household electricity costs would jump by $749.85 and tens of thousands of jobs would be list in our state.

Over two trillion dollars of personal income would be lost in our state alone, which would lose more than five trillion in gross state product.

The magnitude of these numbers gives a meaningful sense of the dramatic scope of the Waxman-Markey bill and other efforts to impose an energy cap-and-tax scheme.  As utility costs rise and personal income declines, this bill would cause jobs to fall in our region like dominoes.

The added costs of this legislation for gasoline begin at the point at which the fuel for our cars and trucks is manufactured.  Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal referenced a study showing that adoption of the Waxman-Markey bill would lead to a 17 percent reduction in the amount of gasoline refined in the U.S. by the year 2030.  This change in domestic fuel production would leave America importing nearly 20 percent of our refined fuel from other countries.

Already, we have seen the destructive potential of an energy policy which burdens our economy with a reliance on foreign energy resources like oil.  New proposals to cap-and-trade American production of energy would essentially create the same reliance on foreign sources of refined fuels – like gasoline which is ready to be pumped into your truck.  We would be doubling-down on a horrible policy of importing energy, and the economic ramifications would be severest in rural parts of our country such as Southern Missouri.

This is an issue which every American household understands very well.  It affects our livelihoods and our pocketbooks.  The plain sense of developing domestic sources of energy is clear to millions of Americans who feel the pinch of rising, unstable gas prices at home and at work.  But our understanding of the issue clearly does not extend to those in Congress who want to push more and more of our energy supplies to foreign shores. 

Late last month, the U.S. Import-Export Bank wrote a $2 billion loan to a Brazilian energy company so that country could develop new offshore drilling opportunities.  The same policy we aren’t implementing at home is one we are underwriting overseas in one of the Western Hemisphere’s biggest energy competitors.  Bureaucrats might laugh off these absurdities, but in Southern Missouri, gas in the tank is the only way to get to work, school, the pharmacy or the grocery store.  We must think responsibly about energy; it’s time to get serious.”