So, estimates of the cost of Obama's goal to reduce CO2 emissions by 17% below 2005 levels vary from -$40 a year for an average family of four, to $1,539 per year by 2020. It all depends on who's doing the estimating. Conservatives will say that the EPA and the CBO harbor a dastardly liberal agenda so their estimates can't be trusted; liberals will say that Big Business is only looking out for itself, and scaring up some big numbers.
Personally, I would go with the CBO's numbers: the poorest households would save $40 per year; while the richest households would see an increased cost of $245 a year. In either case, emissions reductions would hardly cause the sky to fall on consumers' heads.
What we should not forget in all of this is that (1) reducing CO2 is a good thing, no matter what, because emissions are waste which equals inefficiency, both physical and economic, and (2) there is the untold health/human cost of greenhouse gases (aka air pollution) which increases heart and lung disease. Less CO2 in our atmosphere could save thousands of U.S. lives a year.
By Seth Borenstein
November 26, 2009 | Associated Press
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