Yesterday’s Investor’s Business Daily posted a speech given on the floor of the House of Representatives last Friday by Representative Tom McClintock of California’s fourth congressional district in the debate on Cap and Trade legislation.  Representative McClinton talked about the effect a similar state-wide bill has had on California.

Some highlights from the speech:

“Three years ago, I stood on the floor of the California Senate and watched a similar celebration over a similar bill, Assembly Bill 32. And I have spent the last three years watching as that law has dangerously deepened California’s recession. It uses a different mechanism than cap and trade, but the objective is the same: to force a dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.”

“…Until that bill took effect, California’s unemployment numbers tracked very closely with the national unemployment rate. But then, in January of 2007, California’s unemployment rate began a steady upward divergence from the national jobless figures. Today, California’s unemployment rate is more than two points above the national rate, and at its highest point since 1941.”

“…The city of Truckee, Calif., was about to sign a long-term power contract to get its electricity from a new, EPA-approved coal-fired electricity plant in Utah. AB 32 and companion legislation caused them to abandon that contract. The replacement power they acquired literally doubled their electricity costs.”

If the states are the laboratories to test out public policy, we need to pay attention to what is happening in the lab.  The Cap and Trade Bill passed by the House of Representatives will do serious damage to the economy if it is passed by the Senate.  We can’t afford that right now.