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Stop cap and trade from driving away Missouri jobs and businesses
Congress is considering legislation to greatly increase energy prices in Missouri, making it far more expensive to do business in the state and hurting Missouri’s ability to compete in a global marketplace. Central to the legislation, which is supported by Pres. Barack Obama, is the creation of a system of carbon limits and allowances that could be traded between companies, commonly called “cap and trade.”
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Ross Eisenberg, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, discusses the cap and trade legislation at the 2009 Missouri Chamber Environmental Conference.
| While the cap and trade system would certainly drive up energy costs around the nation, impact studies show that Midwestern states, and Missouri in particular, would bear the brunt of this legislation. Because it punishes carbon emissions, the bill would unfairly punish states that rely on coal for electricity.
With the state using more than 34 million tons of coal per year, Missouri is the nation’s 10th largest coal consumer. Power produced by burning coal accounts for more than 80 percent of Missouri’s energy supply, according the American Coal Foundation.
A Missouri Public Utility Association study this spring reported that ratepayers in Missouri could see huge rate increases depending on the aggressiveness of the new law. The study looked at future rate increases under three potential carbon emission reduction cases, each broken down into six allocation scenarios. It concluded that through 2030, Missouri customers could see 8 to 35 percent increases under a low emission reduction case, increases of 32 to 80 percent in a moderate case, and 60 to 105 percent under a high emission reduction case. Click here to read the study.
The U.S. House of Representatives has already approved the dangerous cap and trade legislation earlier this year by a 219-212 vote. The provision is currently included in a 1,500 page bill that expands well beyond cap and trade. Some of the numerous other dangerous provisions would open up climate change to tort lawsuits, impose clean air regulations on small businesses and allow individual states to enact even more strenuous carbon restrictions.
With the thrust of the support for the bill coming from the East and West coasts, it is up to Missouri and other Midwestern states to encourage our elected officials to push back against this proposal. The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry is providing you the tools to impact the debate in Washington D.C.
“A basic truth of economics is that cost drives business. The fear with cap and trade is that the increase in costs that come with the bill will drive businesses and jobs right out of Missouri,” said Daniel P. Mehan, Missouri Chamber President and CEO. “Missouri families and small businesses simply cannot afford the enormous rate increases that would be artificially forced upon our state. We need to let our elected officials know that this legislation would do nothing but hurt Missourians.”
Please use this website as a resource as you learn about how cap and trade could hurt Missouri workers and businesses and use our direct links to contact your elected officials and let them know how you feel about this dangerous legislation.
Learn more
-Review a recent analysis of the cap and trade legislation by the Energy Efficiency Administration.
-Read a report from the Missouri Public Utility Association about how cap and trade legislation could affect Missouri and other Midwestern states.
Get involved
-Sign up to receive updates from the Missouri Chamber about the cap and trade debate.
-Share your story about cap and trade legislation could impact you or your company.
For more information, contact Trent Summers, Missouri Chamber director of environmental and regulatory affairs, at tsummers@mochamber.com or by phone at 573.634.3511. |
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