WellPoint Systems' Blog

While recent public attention has centered on healthcare reform, another highly controversial issue simmering just below the surface will likely reclaim some of the spotlight in the coming months.

The Senate is expected to take up its version of HR 2454, the Henry Waxman and Ed Markey-sponsored American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (a.k.a. cap-and-trade), which narrowly passed the House of Representatives in June.

Proponents of cap-and-trade hail the legislation as the means to “achieve a clean-energy economy transformation,” which in the process will create millions of new jobs, fight global warming, and improve America’s energy security. While almost no one would dispute these as worthy goals, the fact is that this 1,400-plus page disgrace of a bill fails miserably on all accounts. In fact, HR 2454 is little more than a complex tax on energy derived from carbon-emitting fossil fuels disguised as environmental legislation.

First of all, the bill’s heralded job creation assumptions are deeply flawed. To be sure, mandated redistribution of resources from households and businesses that rely on traditional forms of energy to those subsidized by the government will indeed spur creation of new “green” jobs in certain specific industries. Unfortunately, the positive economic impact of these new jobs will be overwhelmed by costs associated with massive job losses in other industries and electricity costs that in the President’s words “would necessarily skyrocket.”