Kill the Climate Bill: . . . It Will Destroy Jobs, Quality of Life

PEPPER PIKE, Ohio Perhaps the most destructive legislation in our country's history will soon be voted on in the United States House of Representatives: the Waxman-Markey tax bill (named the American Clean Energy and Security Act, H.R.2454), in the guise of addressing climate change. It will have adverse and lingering consequences for every American. It will raise the cost of the electricity in our homes, the fuel for our cars, and the energy that produces our manufacturing jobs, with little or no environmental benefit.

Further, independent experts estimate that it will cost Americans more than $2 trillion in just over eight years. All Americans in the Midwest, South, and Rocky Mountain regions will be most drastically affected because the climate change legislation will destroy the nation's coal industry and the low-cost electricity it has provided to these regions for generations. Wealth will be transferred away from almost every state to the West Coast and New England.

The most abundant and by far least expensive energy source in our country for generating electricity is coal. America's coal reserves rival the energy potential of Saudi Arabian oil. But the proposed climate change legislation in the House of Representatives, the Waxman-Markey bill, forces America to throw away this tremendous resource, and our low-cost electricity with it.

The legislation discards coal and low-cost energy by setting an unattainable cap on carbon dioxide emissions by 2020, with the first reductions due by 2012. Under the program, businesses that emit CO2

would be required to purchase or obtain from the government special carbon dioxide credits. This CO 2 cap will force utilities to switch from lower-cost coal to natural gas or other more expensive energy sources.

Reliable estimates show that this bill will cost each American family at least $3,000 more in energy costs each year, notwithstanding the $2 trillion cost to the economy in just eight years. The chief executive of one of the nation's major utilities recently said it best in The Wall Street Journal, stating, "The 25 states that depend on coal for more than 50 percent of their electricity . . . will have to shut down and replace the majority of their fossil fuel plants as a result of the climate change legislation."

THE SUPPORTERS of this ill-conceived legislation point to two provisions that they claim will help coal. The first is that they give electric utilities free credits. However, those credits are worth millions of dollars, and the utilities will be free to sell the credits and use the proceeds to build more expensive natural gas or nuclear power plants, and not use our lowest-cost fuel -- coal.

Second, the authors of the legislation invest money in carbon capture and storage technology, claiming that this will save jobs. But, this technology will not be commercially available for at least 15 to 20 years, long after the reductions are required in 2012 and long after our coal plants are shut down and our manufacturing jobs are exported to China, India, and other countries. All of these countries have stated that they will not place any restrictions on CO2 emissions. China alone, which has surpassed the United States in CO2 emissions, brings a new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plant on line every week. It will have low-cost electricity and America will massively export more jobs there.

It is not too late to tell Congress to kill this flawed bill. Everyone should ask his or her representative in Congress to vote no on the Waxman-Markey climate bill (otherwise known as cap and tax) -- and support affordable energy, American jobs, and our quality of life.

Robert E. Murray is the chairman, president, and CEO of Murray Energy Corporation, the largest independent coal producer in the United States. Find out more at http://www.murrayenergy.net.