Cost Families $1,042 per Year, Wealthiest Americans to Benefit

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham may no longer claim allegiance to the climate bill currently being debated in the Senate, but according to a new independent analysis released this week, the cap-and-trade proposal being advanced by Senators Kerry and Lieberman does no better by the American consumer than previous iterations of the bill that bore his name.

In an effort to better understand the broad consequences of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act on the U.S. economy, the Institute for Energy Research commissioned Chamberlain Economics, L.L.C to perform an economic and distributional analysis of cap-and-trade portion of the proposal.

The following represent some of the study’s major findings:

• The American Power Act would reduce U.S. employment by roughly 522,000 jobs in 2015, rising to over 5.1 million jobs by 2050.
• Households would face a gross annual burden of $125.9 billion per year or $1,042 per household, with costs disproportionately borne by low-income households.
• On a net basis, the top income quintile will benefit financially, redistributing to these households roughly $12.3 billion per year from the bottom 80 percent of earners.
• Households over age 75 bear the largest burden at 2.3 percent of income, followed by households aged 65-74 and under age 25 at 2.1 percent. By contrast, the nation’s highest-earning households between age 45 and 54 years would bear the smallest percentage burden of just 1.5 percent.
• Contrary to the legislation’s stated goal of reducing price volatility by excluding petroleum refiners from quarterly auctions, the Kerry-Lieberman bill is likely to significantly increase allowance price volatility from quarter to quarter, compared to an ordinary auction in which all covered industries bid for allowances.

CHARLESTON – Our state and our nation lost something special early Monday morning with the death of Sen. Robert C. Byrd.  Our nation lost a leader and a respected senior senator. Our state lost so much more – we lost an icon and a true champion of our people and the people of Appalachia.
 
Byrd died earlier this morning at the age of 92 at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va.  He was the longest-serving member of Congress in history and was a recognized authority on the institution’s history, its rules and procedures.
 
“Senator Byrd was a friend,” said Bill Raney. “He was a personal friend of mine and of the people of our state.  He was a son of the coalfields and he held a special place in his heart for our coal miners.  He worked hard for West Virginia and for our people. His love for our state was matched only by the high regard our people held for him.”
 
Byrd had served in the U.S. Senate since 1958. During that time he had been the majority leader twice, chaired the Appropriations Committee and written a four-volume history of the Senate.
 
Sen. Byrd’s wife of 68 years, Erma, died in 2006. The senator is survived by his two daughters, Mona and Marjorie, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.  Plans for Senator Byrd’s memorial services were not disclosed as of the time of this release.

Representatives of the West Virginia Coal Association and the Friends of Coal responded this week to the findings of the “report” by the Morgantown-based, anti-coal research organization, Downstream Strategies.

Despite being presented as a “complete report” of the economic impact of the coal industry on the state, the report left out several key calculations, including the $90 million in property taxes paid by the industry to the various counties and, unbelievably, the $3.2 billion in wages paid by the industry and its vendors and support companies.

Officials also drew attention to the background and obvious biases of the report’s authors, who include a member of Coal River Mountain Watch, and to the anti-coal groups funding the research, such as the Sierra Club and the SEIU.

Association officials referred reporters back to the study released earlier this year by a joint West Virginia University/Marshall University research team that we believe was much more thorough in its analysis of the vital economic impact of our industry on our state.

Association spokesmen were quoted in a variety of publications and broadcast news around the state and responded to stories posted on the internet and on social media forums such as Facebook.

The WV Office of Miners Health Safety & Training will conduct a public hearing at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 30th on the proposed amendments to Title 56, Series 3 Rules Governing Those Employed in and Around Surface Mines in West Virginia.  The hearing will be held in the agency’s Charleston Office at 1615 Washington Street East. The rules are available on the agency’s homepage at http://www.wvminesafety.org/.