Cap-and-tax energy bill hurts Texans

Rep. Pete Olson today issued the following statement in response to the Congressional Budget Office report on H.R. 2454, the Democrats “climate” legislation that may be on the House floor as soon as Friday:

“The Democratic Congressional cap-and-tax plan is a shell game designed to funnel billions of taxpayer and industry dollars through government to fund their restrictive energy plan.  The Congressional Budget Office puts the price tag at $110 billion dollars, most of which will come from industry and be passed onto consumers in the form of higher energy bills.  Faced with an outcry over the impact their plan will have on family budgets, Democrats have tried to buy off opposition by offering “rebates” to help offset increased costs. 

“Let’s be clear, this rebate is nothing more than the government giving you your own money back.  This is typical Washington:  they’ll steal your wallet, and then pat themselves on the back for agreeing to give you back the spare change.  And let’s not forget the fundamental failure of this entire $110 billion plan – it doesn’t even accomplish its stated goal of reducing carbon emissions.

“The CBO report is flawed because it fails to take into account job impacts of this legislation.  Texas is one of the largest energy producers in the nation and thousands of Texans hold energy jobs.  What happens to those jobs when this ploy is implemented?

“This is simply a government scheme designed to decide who gets to work in which energy job.  That is not the role of government and Americans should be outraged.  The stimulus plan was designed to create jobs through billions and billions of tax dollars.  It has not created the jobs it promised and this new energy shell game will not work either.”