Cap and Trade Hits Manufacturing, Farming and Small Business » The Foundry

Cap and Trade Hits Manufacturing, Farming and Small Business » The Foundry: "Sometimes the best offense is a good defense and sometimes the best action is inaction. With unemployment surpassing 10 percent (go here to watch unemployment grow), Midwestern Congressmen want to ensure that Congress will protect three key areas of their respective state’s economy: agriculture, manufacturing and small business. One sure way to protect these jobs is not to implement climate change legislation.

Congressman Bob Latta (R-OH) and 31 more Midwestern Members of Congress sent a letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House Energy and Commerce, Agriculture, and Small Business Committees requesting a joint hearing to how climate change would affect these important industries, not only in the Midwest, but all across the United States. Let us give you a preview, and the news is not good.

Manufacturing: The higher energy costs from cap and trade will kill economic activity and jobs. This is particularly true for energy-intensive industries – such as manufacturing. Economists in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis estimate that, because of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill, manufacturing jobs will fall on average by 400,000. Peak year unemployment in the manufacturing sector alone rises by almost 1.4 million. Some will disappear entirely as business cannot afford to operate. Others will go overseas to countries that choose not to implement a carbon reduction scheme where the costs of operation will be much lower. While manufacturing employment had an expected decline in years past as efficiency gains put labor and capital to more productive use, cap and trade would needlessly shrink the manufacturing industry well beyond what would occur with it."