CNSNews.com - Climate Change Legislation Would Slow Economy, Says Congressional Budget Office

CNSNews.com - Climate Change Legislation Would Slow Economy, Says Congressional Budget Office: "(CNSNews.com) – The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on Monday saying that the climate change legislation being considered by Congress could reduce the purchasing power of the middle class and shrink or slow the economy.

The report, “The Costs of Reducing Greenhouse-Gas Emissions,” says market-based regulations such as a cap and trade scheme would boost the cost of emission-intensive activities. In turn, household incomes would shrink along with consumer consumption and savings, real wages would fall, the supply of labor would shrink, and economic investments would be discouraged because of rising production costs.

In general, with cap and trade, the government would set a ceiling (cap) on how much carbon a company could emit during its production process. If a company’s emissions went above that cap, it could purchase (trade) carbon credits, the proceeds of which would be redistributed by the government to help foster more environmentally friendly companies."