John Boehner, Dec 21, 2009

It has been a long year for Ohio families. The recession that has ravaged the country continues to aim some of its strongest blows at our state. On Friday, we learned that unemployment increased to 10.6 percent in the month of November, extending Ohio’s stretch of double-digit unemployment to nine months.

A ‘jobless recovery’ and continued double-digit unemployment is not what we were promised. Ohio’s economy has lost tens of thousands of jobs since the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ was enacted 10 months ago over pledges from the Administration that jobs would be created ‘immediately.’

Ohioans are asking ‘where are the jobs?’ Yet President Obama traveled to a climate change conference last week in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he sought to commit the U.S. to a series of international emission reduction mandates that will devastate the Ohio economy, and kill more jobs at a time we can least afford it.

While everyone supports a clean environment, these international mandates won’t work. In just one of the many troubling developments during the conference, China and India -- two countries vital to any meaningful climate agreement -- refused to agree to the same cuts expected of the U.S.

Since China and India are two of the largest and fastest growing carbon emitters, an agreement without their full support will have little to no environmental benefit. Such an agreement will however carry an enormous cost to our country as the Obama Administration continues to pave the way for a ‘cap-and-trade’ national energy tax as a means to reduce U.S. emissions.

As you may have heard me say before, a ‘cap-and-trade’ energy tax will only make our energy crisis worse by increasing our dependence on foreign oil, increasing the cost of energy, and driving more jobs overseas to countries with less stringent environmental policies. One study from the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation concluded that Ohio could see job losses as high as 108,000, electricity price increases of up to 60 percent, and decreases in household disposable income of as much as $1,419.

This study is not alone in showing the troubling impact of the Majority Party’s energy policies. Numerous studies from agencies and organizations ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institute agree that ‘cap-and-trade’ will reduce jobs overall and lead to lower incomes.

There is a better way. Republicans are committed to working to promote clean air, clean water and a healthy environment. That’s why we have offered a comprehensive energy policy that not only cleans up the environment but also lowers energy costs, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, and promotes new energy technology.

Republicans’ ‘all of the above’ strategy is the fastest route to a cleaner, more reliable energy future. Our legislation -- the American Energy Act (H.R. 2846) -- will promote clean alternative technologies, encourage conservation, and increase environmentally-safe production of American energy, while creating millions of new, good-paying American jobs.

If there is anything to be learned from this year, it is that these are the types of common sense solutions Ohioans truly want.

Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican, represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate. He serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.