Kerry-Lieberman Would ‘Crash Dive’ Economy Back to the 1870s

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today made the following statement on the global warming bill announced by U.S. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.:

“Put me down as skeptical of Kerry-Lieberman’s chances despite the uptick in political pressure now because, as the BBC aptly put it this morning, ‘After the elections, the Democrats may well lose their stranglehold on Congress.’

“Its authors say their new bill isn’t warmed over cap and trade, but there aren’t many differences between Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Lieberman where it counts – Government-set prices on CO2, sweetheart deals for supportive industries and states with their own fledgling cap-and-trade systems, and economic punishments for anybody who doesn’t get with the program. And just like with Waxman-Markey, we’ll need to crash dive the economy back to something resembling the 1870s in order to reach the anti-global warming targets that Kerry-Lieberman sets for 2020, 2030 and 2050.

“I think these kinds of efforts fail largely because most Americans refuse to accept that global warming means our best days are behind us. Nobody I know thinks it’s good that a reenactment of their great-great-grandparents’ lives is the best they can hope to pass on to their children.”

House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans May 12, 2010 2322A Rayburn House Office Building | Washington, DC 20515 | (202) 225-3641