Treasury Memo: Cap And Trade Would Devastate U.S. Industrial Base, Trigger Energy Rationing – News Max

President Obama’s cap-and-trade plan could deliver several blows to the U.S. economy, according to a Treasury Department memo that one observer described as “damning.”

The country could lose 1 percent of its gross domestic product, face accelerated outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, and experience energy rationing if cap and trade became law, according to the memo, which the Competitive Enterprise Institute obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

“The memo was damning particularly… by pointing out what opponents of cap and trade have long said is the point of cap and trade, and has been proven by Europe’s experience,” said Christopher Horner, a senior fellow at the institute. “You will chase off energy intensive industries – meaning manufacturing jobs. The memo singles out steel, cement, chemical… glass, plastic, and ceramics – the same ones that have been clobbered in Europe by this.

“This is the largest outsourcing scheme in history, not just in theory, but in practice,” he said.

The memo, prepared after Obama’s Feb. 24 speech to a joint session of Congress, details Treasury’s analysis of the economic impact of cap and trade, which ties climate change to business practices.

The United States gained steel jobs from Spain because the manufacturer’s costs under the European Union’s cap-and-trade program chased the jobs to Kentucky, Horner said. However, that foreshadows how cap and trade could cost the United States jobs that move abroad, he said.

The report concludes that cap and trade could result in the loss of the U.S. market share in the global economy.

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