Push back on cap and tax
Senator Hatch and Governor Herbert held a forum examining the effects of cap and tax. The press summarized this as follows:
- The price at the gas pump would increase a minimum of 20 cents a gallon by 2012 and $1.38 by 2035, even absent market impacts such as hurricanes or shortages.
- Exports of agricultural products totaling $115 billion to international markets as of 2007 would be jeopardized because U.S. competitors wouldn’t operate under the same mandate, making their costs less.
- Most electricity providers in Utah would institute double-digit rate increases.
- Four economic studies on the national job losses caused by Waxman-Markey put the numbers at varying nightmarish scenarios, from The Brookings Institution’s calculation of 1.7 million annually to the Heritage Foundation’s prediction of 2.5 million annually from 2035-2050.
- Closer to home, a Heritage Foundation report foretells nearly 24,000 jobs lost annually in Utah and an impact of more than $4 billion in losses to the state’s gross product base in 2035.
The full report from the conference can be read here.
David James