Republicans in Congress incorrectly cited an MIT report on cap-and-trade, claiming it would raise consumer energy prices by $3,400. The report actually said $340. (Photo courtesy of GOP.gov)
House Republicans used an M.I.T. report to come up with cost estimates for the carbon cap-and-trade program. Lester Graham reports the author of that report has informed the Republicans their conclusions are almost ten times higher than the report indicated:
Transcript
House Republicans used an M.I.T. report to come up with cost estimates for the carbon cap-and-trade program. Lester Graham reports the author of that report has informed the Republicans their conclusions are almost ten times higher than the report indicated:
The House Republicans recently issued a press release that claimed the carbon cap-and-trade program would cost every American houseold more than $3,100 a year. They based it on that report. Problem is, the author of the report –an economist– says that’s just wrong. John Reilly says when a House Republican staffer called Reilly the economist made it clear the Republicans’ number was wrong by a factor of ten.
“To the extent they knowingly took wrong numbers, they’re really kind of just misinforming the debate and trying to scare people with numbers that really aren’t accurate. If they’re just confused, I’ve sent a letter now. In principle they could put out a press release that said that they had made an error and the right number is actually 340 not 3,100 or something.”
The discrepency was first noted by PolitiFact, a truth squad project at the St. Petersburg Times.
For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.