The price of electricity and fuel could rise sharply and economic growth could be stifled in the Southeast and elsewhere in the U.S. under tax proposals now pending in Washington, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Monday.
At the opening of an energy conference sponsored by the Southern Growth Policies Board, the second-term Republican said cap-and-trade proposals on carbon emissions being pushed by President Barack Obama’s administration would drive up the average Mississippi residential power bill by as much as 50 percent.
Barbour also said proposed federal taxes on energy production would drive up the cost of gasoline, diesel fuel and natural gas, not only on consumers, but on industry.
“These policies have in common that they would all inevitably and substantially increase the cost of energy to American families and American businesses, especially manufacturing,” Barbour said.
This is the side of “green energy” too often ignored or dismissed by lawmakers and the media — the real world cost for families.
