The Energy Bill
I believe, if one thing is set to shoot President Obama in the foot, it is the Congressional Democrats 2009 Energy Legislation.
For the past several months on the home page of my electric company has been a great big visual urging customers to become educated on the energy legislation Congres is proposing, and to engage their legislatures to work with co-op energy companies to keep electricity affordable for Americans. The cruxt of the emails they are urging constituents to mail to their Congressional leaders is: "Please balance any votes you cast about electricity with the need to keep it affordable."
From a wire story:
Okay so $140 a year amounts to roughly $12 a month. Which really isn't all that much. Though it does sort of take back that tax cut that President Obama placed in our pay checks. An MIT study of the bill has the cost per family at more like $340 annually, or $29 a month. Correction, the MIT estimate is $800 per year, or $67 a month per family.
The Weekly Standard goes even further to say that the cost per family is going to be around $3,900 per year, or $325 a month. According to WS, the $800 figure comes in because he assumes that people will take advantage of tax incentives, like insulating their homes, buying hybrid cars, or installing solar panels on their roofs. Doing these will create tax rebates of $3,128 that each home will recieve, leaving only the $800 cost per household. Operating as is, with no insulation, no hybrid car, no other tax incentive, the price per household will be the $3,900 the GOP is touting.
Either way, I do not have $800 extra per year right now. And if I don't have it, I know a lot of other people that don't either.
This energy bill results in real cost increases across the board for Americans through gas and electricty. I can not see many Americans standing by silently as their electric bills rise $12 - $60 dollars, for no reason other than the government wants more money.
And for the improverished, for whom electricty bills may be a monthly struggle, these figures are not low. When the heat waves hit Chicago, Texas and Arizona, or Wisconsin drops into the -20s, we'll see what people think about this plan.
For the past several months on the home page of my electric company has been a great big visual urging customers to become educated on the energy legislation Congres is proposing, and to engage their legislatures to work with co-op energy companies to keep electricity affordable for Americans. The cruxt of the emails they are urging constituents to mail to their Congressional leaders is: "Please balance any votes you cast about electricity with the need to keep it affordable."
From a wire story:
A preliminary analysis released by the Environmental Protection Agency found that the average American household would pay an extra $98 to $140 a year to achieve the emissions reductions mandated by the bill. That estimate assumed broad increases in energy efficiency, a shift away from fossil fuels and the distribution of 40 percent of money collected from auctioning off emission credits to American households to help pay energy bills.
Okay so $140 a year amounts to roughly $12 a month. Which really isn't all that much. Though it does sort of take back that tax cut that President Obama placed in our pay checks. An MIT study of the bill has the cost per family at more like $340 annually, or $29 a month. Correction, the MIT estimate is $800 per year, or $67 a month per family.
The Weekly Standard goes even further to say that the cost per family is going to be around $3,900 per year, or $325 a month. According to WS, the $800 figure comes in because he assumes that people will take advantage of tax incentives, like insulating their homes, buying hybrid cars, or installing solar panels on their roofs. Doing these will create tax rebates of $3,128 that each home will recieve, leaving only the $800 cost per household. Operating as is, with no insulation, no hybrid car, no other tax incentive, the price per household will be the $3,900 the GOP is touting.
Either way, I do not have $800 extra per year right now. And if I don't have it, I know a lot of other people that don't either.
This energy bill results in real cost increases across the board for Americans through gas and electricty. I can not see many Americans standing by silently as their electric bills rise $12 - $60 dollars, for no reason other than the government wants more money.
And for the improverished, for whom electricty bills may be a monthly struggle, these figures are not low. When the heat waves hit Chicago, Texas and Arizona, or Wisconsin drops into the -20s, we'll see what people think about this plan.
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