Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade’s Biggest Losers: Construction
Nicolas Loris /
Everyone knows someone who works in construction. It’s one of those unwritten facts of life. If policymakers in Washington have their way, you’ll soon be able to say you used to know someone who worked in construction. That’s because the current cap and trade plan, proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives by Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA), will dramatically raise the cost of using energy. And construction is, well, energy intensive. Even without cap and trade, The Energy Information Agency projects industrial sector growth in construction will fall because of rising energy prices and increased international competition.
Waxman-Markey will make it worse. When you want people to use less of something, you tax it. Of course, Waxman-Markey is trying to achieve this goal in the most inefficient way possible. The legislation has become so convoluted that it has become lobbyists gone wild, fighting for your tax dollars. It’s highly susceptible to fraud, and because most of the allowance handouts have been given away, it’s almost certain there will be no reduction in CO2, which has the environmental activists up in arms. (Of course, the reduction in carbon from Waxman-Markey wouldn’t make a difference, anyway.)