Only in Washington D.C. would a program that costs hundreds of billions of dollars and perhaps over one trillion dollars, be called “comparatively modest.” But that’s what Congressional Budget Office (CBO) director Douglas Elmendorf said about the costs of cap-and-trade in his recent testifimony [.pdf] before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Elmendorf’s testimony [...]

The CBO has issued a new report [.pdf] that summarizes the economic effects of greenhouse-gas legislation, relying on previously published analyses. The report shows just how weak the case for the proposed cap-and-trade plan really is. In fact, the CBO demonstrates that the theoretical benefits of Waxman-Markey to the United States fall far short of [...]

In the world of Washington policymaking facts and figures are regularly thrown around to frame arguments in support of or against a particular policy. In the case of the Waxman-Markey energy tax, one such figure made a late-hour entry, gaining broad currency for its catchy tune and visual: the largest regulatory intervention in U.S. history, [...]