The $6 Trillion dollar bill

Cue the lobby groups. At least they have learnt to pick a very big number to get the headlines (as I am depressingly proving). The longer term benefits for the US of being a world leader in green technologies following any imposition of a bill do not get the headlines.

President George W. Bush slammed a U.S. Senate climate change bill set for debate on Monday, saying the measure would cost the American economy $6 trillion. "I urge the Congress to be very careful about running up enormous costs for future generations of Americans," Bush said at a White House meeting on economy and tax cuts. He said the bill, known as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act and set for its first debate on the Senate floor late on Monday, "would impose roughly $6 trillion of new costs on the American economy."

--Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters, 2 June 2008

The case for the defence:

The bill's supporters expected this argument, and maintain the legislation's cap-and-trade provisions would in fact create jobs and that the cost of doing nothing about climate change justifies action now.
--Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters, 2 June 2008

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