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Cap-and-trade emissions market would cost consumers
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Editor, I am afraid that, in a rush to judgment, the Pelosi Democrats in Congress will enact a cap-and-trade energy tax that will have dramatic negative effects on our entire economy by causing significant increases in the cost of power generation.
This proposal would create yet one more hidden tax that would be passed on to every American in the form of higher utility bills and higher prices of goods and services.
To give you a glimpse of what this means in real numbers, the Waxman-Markey bill requires that 20 percent of electricity production come from renewable sources (wind, solar and geothermal) by 2020. This provision alone, which excludes nuclear, biomass and hydropower as “renewable” sources, will cost utility ratepayers in Georgia an estimated $8.6 billion over the next 10 years.
If you thought the prices at the pump were high last fall, that was just a taste of what a cap-and-trade energy tax could do to your household budget.
Instead, I believe it is in the geopolitical and environmental interest of the United States to reduce our dependence on imported foreign oil. Such a reduction is possible through the development of all our domestic sources of energy including nuclear, wind, biomass, solar, hydro, geothermal, and exploration of oil off shore.
While cap-and-trade may sound harmless, make no mistake, this Democratic plan is a backdoor tax on every Georgian and would place our nation’s businesses at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy.
Help me keep this from happening! I need to hear your views in order to effectively fight against this sort of “Washington knows best” philosophy.

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson
R-Georgia
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