Cap And Tax Is Going To Be Nothing More Than A National Energy Tax

Floor Speech

Mr. LATTA. Madam Speaker, one of the issues that we've been talking a lot about on this floor and across this country has been about cap-and-tax, and cap-and-tax is nothing more than it is going to be a national energy tax.

Now, I have a very unique district in the Fifth Congressional District of Ohio. It's interesting in that I represent not only the largest manufacturing district in the State of Ohio, but I also represent the largest agricultural district in the State of Ohio.

I know we've been talking about this and there's been a lot of information that's being put out there by a lot of different groups. But I think it's interesting to point out that the Heritage Foundation and just last week the Brookings Institution has also put out how many jobs are going to be lost by this. The Heritage Foundation is estimating that you're looking at anywhere from over 1.5 million jobs being lost; carry out to the end date with the Brookings Institution, about 2.5 percent. We can't afford to have this happening in the United States.

When you look at what the Heritage Foundation did, they did a very interesting study. They did what they call a manufacturing vulnerability index. They took all 435 districts across the Congress. They said, What was the amount of energy that you use and what type of energy it was? In my case in the State of Ohio, 87 percent of our energy is coal-generated. Next door to my west is Indiana. They get 94 percent.

So they ranked all these districts together. The question was, Okay, where did you stand? And this is one of those times where you don't want to be at the top of the list. Of the top 20 districts in the United States, according to this manufacturing vulnerability index, 16 of the top 20 were from Ohio and Indiana. Unfortunately, in my case, I came in number three.

Number three, What's that going to mean? It means it's going to be tough to get jobs in northwest Ohio, north-central Ohio, and people are having a tough time right now because we have a manufacturing district. If we don't have those jobs and we don't have that electricity that we can turn on in the morning, make sure that those plants can run, we're not going to have people working.

It's not like it's just going to affect the folks on the industrial side and the manufacturing side. As I said, I also have the largest agricultural district in the State of Ohio. And one of the things that's tough out there is there are a lot of farmers in my district that not only farm full time, but they have a job also full time off the farm, and they have to balance the two together. They're working long, long hours, especially if they're on the livestock side. So these folks are worried about not only having to turn on the energy at the workplace but also the workplace on the farm.

And as we've seen some of these numbers being calculated as to what it might cost for a family of four with cap-and-tax, you're talking about in some cases right off the bat, $1,500 additional for a family of four and all the way up in the out-years being calculated at up to $4,800.

Let's also put this in context of what it's going to do on the farm income side. It's estimated by the Heritage Foundation that by the year 2012 you're going to see a drop of about $8 billion in farm income; in 2024, $25 billion; and in 2025, $50 billion. So you're seeing decreases in farm income of 28, 60, and 94 percent respectively. You're going to see a total decrease from 2010 to 2035 of 57 percent and a total decrease in the baseline for farm income out there.

The question is, How is a farm going to survive in this country? It's going to be tough. Ag construction costs are estimated, because of cap-and-tax, they're going to go up 10 percent by the year 2034. By 2035--and here's a real tough one for farmers because of course, everything you're doing is out there in the field--gas and diesel prices are going to go up 58 percent; electricity costs on the farm, 90 percent. So when you're already out there struggling right there to make a living on the farm, it's going to be very difficult with these numbers to do it.

Then we have to think about this. Where are these young farmers going to go? We're going to try to get more younger people out on these farms, but we all know right now equipment costs are high. We all know that land prices are high. But then when you add all these costs up and you put these electricity costs and you put the energy costs and you put the fertilizer costs in, all these are all driven by energy costs. It's going to hit home real quick. We're going to have fewer and fewer people out on the farm. It's estimated we have less than 2 percent of Americans farming today, less than 2 percent. In Ohio, it's under 1 percent, but they're feeding us all, and we should be thankful for them.

The co-ops in my district and across not only my district but the State and the country are very fearful about this. These electric co-ops out there are worried because if they have to buy more green energy, those costs would have to be passed on to the end user. That's the farmer, the manufacturer, the senior, the family, and they are all worried about it.

But who's our competition? You know, last week, we had the Ag Secretary before us in the Agriculture Committee, and we asked questions about China. And China is not going to abide by cap-and-tax, and in fact, the day that we had that hearing, they said that they were not going to abide by cap-and-tax. I would ask that this legislation be defeated.

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