Friday, April 10, 2009

Cap and Trade may double your electric bill

States with many coal fired electrical plants will face huge price increases under the Cap and Trade proposal. The cost of coal could double. Of course, this will be passed along to the consumer. Read more at(surprise) the New York Times.
That is why, even before Representatives Henry A. Waxman of California and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats, proposed legislation that would put a price on carbon-dioxide emissions, Senate and House Democrats from coal-using states began to push back.

...Estimates of the effects of the proposed federal climate legislation on electric rates vary. The central thrust of the Waxman-Markey bill is to make carbon-dioxide emissions expensive by capping them and creating allowances that utilities must acquire to function...

Jaime Haro, AmerenUE’s director of asset management and trading, said his company paid $30 to produce a megawatt of electricity. The coal burned emits roughly a ton of carbon dioxide. If federal legislation effectively prices emissions at $30 a ton — estimates have varied from $20 to $115 — “my costs could double,” Mr. Haro said.

Those costs probably would be passed on to customers.

Here is a video from FoxNews on Cap and Trade.(Video via YouTube)

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