Washington, DC – Today the American Council for Affordable and Reliable Energy (ACARE) declared opposition to the Kerry-Lieberman (KL) “Cap and Trade” bill that was introduced this morning. After many months of speculation, it can be confirmed that the bill contains many costly elements of no benefit to Americans that the Senators claimed it wouldn’t, as well as many special giveaways to certain major energy companies who helped to craft the bill.

Mike Carey, President of ACARE, commented that “Senators Kerry and Lieberman have put together an enormously expensive government power grab worse than the recently passed health care reform bill. It will create huge costs for every American family, job losses and redistribution of wealth with no environmental benefit. The escalating costs, mandates, penalties, regulations and taxes in this bill will prove to be a death blow to our economy as it struggles to climb out of a recession. This bill actually creates 60 new agencies, boards, reports and programs that will only bleed money while strangling businesses. This is by far the most egregious expansion of government in history, and our economy cannot withstand it.”

Senators Kerry and Lieberman have denied that there will be a specific gasoline tax, and so throughout the bill it is called a “linked fee.” This “linked fee” will hit the lower and middle income families particularly hard as they pay a disproportionate percentage of their income on energy. This will run counter to President Obama’s promise not to raise taxes on those making under $250,000. This bill directly impacts about 20 percent of the economy through new mandates on transportation, manufacturing industries, electricity and energy production as well as any business that consumes electricity such as agriculture or service-based industries.

Carey continued, “Make no mistake, this bill will kill jobs in the Midwest and across the country. Manufacturers will either be forced out of business or have to export their jobs offshore to places like India, China, Brazil and Mexico. Those countries would never place caps on carbon that the Kerry Lieberman bill will impose here at home, as they know it would kill their economies. This bill is nothing more than an assault on taxpayers, the economy and the energy sector and a massive wealth transfer to energy and other companies, such as General Electric, that bought space at the trough.”

ACARE is committed to providing America with the energy it needs, from coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power, renewable sources and technologies yet to be invented. ACARE supports policies that make affordable and reliable energy a reality, energy that will fuel our high standard of living, protect a clean environment and serve as bridge to the future. Public policies, such as the Kerry Lieberman bill should not arbitrarily or unfairly discriminate among energy sources and should be based on sound science and cost-effective and growth-promoting government regulation.