Boxer and Kerry Unveil New Devastating Energy Tax

By Steve Everley on September 30, 2009 2:17 PM

Today, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA) introduced the newest version of the energy tax in the Senate. This bill exceeds 800 pages and will get much longer as Senators manipulate its language to satisfy the special interests. It also continues upon the failed decision of the House of Representatives from June of this year, when Nancy Pelosi was able to manipulateenough Representatives into voting for the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill.

The Senate version will ultimately end up much different than the House-passed version, although the central idea - a nationwide cap and trade system for carbon dioxide - will likely remain. The biggest change thus far is that the Boxer-Kerry energy tax has a stronger emissions cap requirement by 2020, meaning the cost of this measure will likely be much higher, especially in the near-term.

Other changes (which will come in the form of increased complexity and likely hundreds of additional pages) will be made because the bill faces a much tougher battle in the Senate, where virtually all Republicans and several Democrats have voiced serious concerns about the energy tax and its impact on their respective states.

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