With America still in a deep recession and more than 3.6 million jobs lost during the past 8 months, the last thing most people want to know about is a new government energy bill that will result in people paying even more for fuel for their cars and for electricity and other fuels to cool their homes this summer and provide ample heating this coming winter.
Enter the Obama Administration’s new “Carbon Tax” or “Green Energy” tax bill which is supposed to discourage Americans against using excessive amounts of carbon based energy, i.e. energy powered by carbon based fossil fuels, in order to encourage them to begin switching over to alternative and renewable energy sources, such as solar power, hydrogen gas, and other similar fuels.
The main problem in doing this, according to opponents of the bill, which includes virtually all Republican Congressmen and women and Senators (as well as many Democrats) is that Americans are simply not ready to switch to these new fuels – as they simply aren’t available yet. And the costs to American tax payers for increased fuel prices and higher overall taxes is estimated to run to more than $150 billion over the next ten years, or an average of about $3,100 per household.
The new bill is planned in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the year 2050. Energy companies using carbon based fuels will have to obtain a special permit from the U.S. government in order to produce electricity by using carbon based fuels.
Proponents of the new bill, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, claim that the gradual switch over to clean technology and carbon less fuels will create millions of new jobs. There might be some truth in that claim, and it will also mean that the switch over to new energy sources will result in millions of Americans losing their jobs as well. The proposed bill is also said by many to be reminiscent of the Clinton administration’s BTU Energy Bill in 1993 when Democrats passed a bill, advocated by then Vice President Al Gore, that would have taxed the amount of energy used by measuring British Thermal Units, or BTUs in both homes and industries. This would have resulted in taxes on energy used going up considerably, and as a result was defeated by Congress. The new bill is even being called by many opponents as the BTU II Bill.
While there is little doubt that Americana must rely less on fossil fuels, much of which is imported from the Middle East, those opposed to the new bill say that the process must be done gradually, and especially not during an economic crises like the one Americans are currently going through. It will take a long time before most Americans will be traveling about in total electric cars, or ones fueled by hydrogen or by water (which every chemistry student knows is composed of 2 atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen).
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