Bob McCarty Writes

American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard issued the following statement today regarding the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s approval of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade proposal in a 33-25 vote largely along party lines:

Jack Gerard, API President

“While the bill has laudable environmental and economic goals, its inequitable system of allocations remains intact and if enacted would have a disproportionate adverse impact on consumers, businesses and producers of gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, crude oil and natural gas.

“There is time to get this right. As the bill moves to the full House, we ask lawmakers to look at all the consequences of the bill, consider the implications on ordinary Americans at a time of economic hardship and come up with an equitable plan that will address global climate change and improve, not weaken, our nation’s energy and economic security.

“As a recent independent analysis shows, this inequitable approach, by itself, will produce additional unemployment, driving annual job destruction totals related to the legislation to more than one million. Another independent study projects job losses more than double this – up to 2.7 million net jobs lost annually, even with new green jobs created. According to one of these reports, an average family will pay an additional $1,500 a year for energy and 74 percent more for gasoline. Today, that would mean gasoline prices above $4.00 a gallon, an increase nearly equivalent to a ten-fold rise in the federal gasoline tax.”