Manzullo to Obama Global Warming Envoy: Cap and Trade will Destroy American Manufacturing

November 4th, 2009 at 02:54pm Bob Trojan

Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) today told President Obama’s Chief Climate
Change negotiator, Todd Stern, that the massive tax increase and new spending
programs proposed in the Democrats’ “cap and trade” legislation will result in
enormous job losses and an exodus of American businesses overseas.

During a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing today, Manzullo disputed the
Administration’s claim that enacting cap and trade legislation will rejuvenate
the economy by creating new jobs and reducing greenhouse gases. Manzullo is the
lead Republican on the House Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global
Environment, which has legislative jurisdiction over the State Department’s
Office of Global Climate Change. Manzullo also co-chairs the House
Manufacturing Caucus.

According to a landmark study published by the University of King Juan
Carlos in Spain, the Spanish economy suffered enormously after adopting a cap
and trade framework that is eerily similar to the proposal in Congress.
The study notes that for “every renewable energy job that the [Government] manages
to finance…the U.S. should expect …about 9 jobs lost for every 4
created[.]”  The study also calculates that since 2000, Spain has spent
over $840,000 for every green job created, including massive government
subsidies for certain industries.

“One of four people I represent in northern Illinois earns their living in
manufacturing. What the Democrat majority is trying to do with cap and
trade will put even more of them on the unemployment lines,” Manzullo said. “As
the study conducted by the University of King Juan Carlos in Spain shows,
adopting a cap and trade regime costs far more jobs than it creates.
Furthermore, signing on to a multilateral treaty to bind the U.S. to
unrealistically high requirements to stop emissions, while rapidly emerging
economies in countries such as China and India collude together to exempt
themselves from similar limitations, is nothing more than unilateral
disarmament.  It will simply result in the transfer of pollution problems
to these nations and a massive tax on the American people.”

Please click here
to view Manzullo’s comments during the hearing.

Entry Filed under: Management, Technology, Economy