Cap and Trade Hits the Poor the Hardest

Nicolas Loris / June 25, 2009

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), best known for its pioneering work in the civil rights movement, has joined an increasingly loud chorus calling out proposed “cap-and-trade” legislation as a regressive tax, and a steep one at that.

Roy Innis, CORE National Chairman since 1968, writes:

The civil rights challenge of our time is to stop extreme environmental policies that drive up the cost of energy and disproportionately hurt low income Americans and the working poor.”

As Innis himself notes, the American Gas Association (AGA) has extensively documented the high portion of income that goes towards energy costs for low-income families. Some key statistics:

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