Eric Fruits has an op-ed in the Oregonian on the economic and fiscal costs associated with Oregon’s proposed policies to halt climate change.

Oregon is a leader in climate change legislation. The state has adopted one of the most ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals in the world. Although Oregon is big in leadership status, it is small in size. Even if all Oregonians dropped their energy consumption to zero–or doubled it–the Earth’s climate would never know it. Thus, policies to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state run the risk of being virtually “all pain, no gain.”

There is no getting around it: both carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs raise energy prices. If either program is put into effect, households, businesses, and the public sector will have steeper power bills and will pay more to drive their vehicles. Meeting the goals would mean Oregon’s economic growth would be cut almost in half. In turn, state and local governments would collect $4.4 billion less in revenues.

Numerous businesses are shrinking, closing shop, or exiting the state, leaving Oregon with almost double digit unemployment. Higher energy prices under a carbon tax or cap-and-trade program will only make things worse.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 8:52 am and is filed under Economic Impacts, Energy, Environment, Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.