I just got off a bloggers' conference call with Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who was discussing the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191/S. 3036). The Senator had an op-ed in yesterday's Wall Street Journal where he summarized the bill:

The Senate is debating a global warming bill that will create the largest expansion of the federal government since FDR's New Deal, complete with a brand new, unelected bureaucracy. The Lieberman-Warner bill (America's Climate Security Act) represents the largest tax increase in U.S. history and the biggest pork bill ever contemplated with trillions of dollars in giveaways. Well-heeled lobbyists are already plotting how to divide up the federal largesse. The handouts offered by the sponsors of this bill come straight from the pockets of families and workers in the form of lost jobs, higher gas, power and heating bills, and more expensive consumer goods.

Various analyses show that Lieberman-Warner would result in higher prices at the gas pump, between 41 cents and $1 per gallon by 2030. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says Lieberman-Warner would effectively raise taxes on Americans by more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years. The federal Energy Information Administration says the bill would result in a 9.5% drop in manufacturing output and higher energy costs.

The EPA itself admits that, even if the bill worked precisely as planned, it would only reduce global temperatures by less than two degrees Fahrenheit over the course of a century. The price tag for this drop? Over ten trillion dollars by 2050, aimed at businesses and passed on to the consumer. Analysts say that the GDP would drop 7% by 2050.

The better solution, Sen. Inhofe argues,

is an energy policy that emphasizes technology and includes developing nations such as China and India. Tomorrow's energy mix must include more natural gas, wind and geothermal, but it must also include oil, coal and nuclear power, which is the world's largest source of emission-free energy. Developing and expanding domestic energy sources will translate into energy security and ensure stable supplies and well-paying jobs for Americans.

A new poll out today indicated that two thirds of Americans consider energy security a more pressing issue than climate change. With gas reaching $4/gallon, it hardly seems the time for a huge and regressive new tax.