Stealing by Any Other Name

And it’s still stealing. As a recent report by the Institute for Energy Research (IER) reveals, Waxman-Markey is a regressive tax that will hit the poorest the hardest.

According to the independent, expert analysis, “On a gross basis, the bill would cost $106 billion per year or $892 per household, ranging from $451 to $1,531 depending on income. On a net basis, households in the four lowest-earning quintiles would pay between $31 and $512 per year, while households in the highest-earning quintile would actually profit by $604 per year—effectively redistributing roughly $14 billion per year to the highest earning households in the U.S.”

Making matters worse, according to the study’s lead author, Andrew Chamberlain, “the free allowances distributed under Waxman-Markey will result in large windfall profits for the corporate allies of the legislation.”

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Which, of course, includes so-called “green” industries: companies—carbon capture and sequestration companies, energy efficiency producers, and solar and wind companies, and “companies engaged in ‘clean’ energy innovation, and ‘clean’ vehicle technology companies,” according to the report. The bill would result in a windfall of $10.6 billion and $18.7 billion every single year for these companies, with a total of $135.3 billion between 2012 and 2020.

What emerges from IER’s analysis is legislation that attempts to reorder the nation’s energy industry, by redirecting profits around, and by forcing consumers to pay more for goods and services that depend upon carbon-emitting fuels like coal, oil, and gasoline. And it is designed to especially victimize lower-income consumers.

The legislation, HR 2454, would force carbon-emitting industries coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas to purchase carbon permits. The bill aims to reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.

Meanwhile, “green” companies, which produce inefficient energy that will predictably result in inefficient transportation, manufacturing, and heavy industries, will be gaining a competitive advantage through the bill’s implementation. They will also be heavily subsidized through tax incentives and other favors, goodies, and kickbacks for their loyalty.

Really, the point is just to drive up the costs of gasoline, oil, and coal—energies the American people depend upon for electricity, transportation, heating, and just about everything else that makes America run. And it all comes at a time when the American people are desperately struggling just to make ends meet.

In the process, Congress will have handed over the nation’s energy policy to a radical faction that has but one agenda: to wreck the nation’s economic standing in the world by making energy unaffordable, eliminating real jobs, and sealing away American natural resources from an economy that will be unable to grow without them. All in the name of “saving mankind” – while destroying people.

The final House vote in favor of the legislation was a razor-thin 219 to 212. One can only hope that in the Senate, supposedly the most deliberative body in the world, the members of Congress will come to its senses.

Worst of all, according APS Physics, “Climate Sensitivity Revisited,” there is really no reason to reorganize the entire economy to affect “climate change” when the Monckton study raises serious doubts as to the accuracy of the UN International Panel on Climate Change’s computer models. The whole hypothesis is not even based on actual observable data. It turns out to be computer predictions that have proven to be wildly off.

All of which raises the question: Why? Why tax the poor to give to the rich, elite ruling class? Why destroy the economy when the nation is struggling to compete with China and India? Why open up this Pandora’s Box?

Perhaps it’s because they are more interested in redirecting profits than with “saving the planet.” Perhaps, taking the charitable view, it is because they are horribly misguided and terminally naïve. Or, perhaps because it is just stealing by another name.

Robert Romano is the ALG Senior News Editor.