Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax is a job-killer yet she’s bringing it to the House for a vote tomorrow. According to the National Black Chamber of Commerce study, this plan will cost 2.5 million American jobs thanks to the higher energy costs it will force consumers, small businesses and other employers to pay. The chart below shows the projected job losses in every region of our country – with areas already hard-hit by the recession sustaining even more losses.
In Ohio, we’ve got 10.8 percent unemployment -- that’s up from 6 percent a year ago -- and it may go higher yet.
"Chances are this is not the end of the line," said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics in Pepper Pike, a Cleveland suburb."We haven't seen the peak yet." While it's difficult to predict, Mr. Mayland said the rate could peak at about 12 percent in July before starting to decline.
Here are the unemployment rates for counties and major cities in the 8th Congressional District for May 2009 followed by the unemployment rates for May 2008, just released by the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services:
Butler County: 9.7 percent/5.4 percent Darke County: 11.3 percent/5.8 percent
Mercer County: 9 percent/4.3 percent Miami County: 12.1 percent/5.7 percent
Montgomery County: 11.4 percent/7.5 percent Preble County: 12.3 percent/6.2 percent
Our major cities aren’t doing well, either. The May 2009 unemployment rate is listed first followed by the May 2008 unemployment rate:
Akron: 10.5 percent/5.9 percent Cincinnati: 8.8 percent/5.6 percent
Cleveland: 12.2 percent/8.8 percent Columbus: 8.2 percent/5.1 percent
Dayton: 12.6 percent8.5 percent Toledo: 14.3 percent/7.7 percent
In a recent CNBC interview, prominent Warren Buffett, who serves as an economic advisor to the President, blasted Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax, calling it a “huge tax” and “fairly regressive” that will harm “an awful lot of people.”
As Agriculture Committee Ranking Republican Frank Lucas (R-OK) noted during a hearing earlier this year, rural Americans would be disproportionately impacted by this burdensome, jobs-killing tax. They travel 25 percent further than urban residents to go to work and run errands. They spend 58 percent more on fuel than urban residents as a percentage of their income. And electricity is far more costly to deliver to rural households than to urban homes across America.
The end result: if Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax becomes law, rural Americans will pay much, much more. Here is just the latest collection of groups that are opposing Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax because of its consequences for family farmers and small businesses:
Agribusiness Association of Iowa
Agricultural Retailers Association
Agrium Inc.
Alabama Farmers Federation
American Agri-Women
American Farm Bureau Association
American Farmers & Ranchers
American Frozen Food Institute
American Meat Institute
American Plant Food Corporation
AmeriFlax
Associated Industries of Florida
Beck’s Superior Hybrids
Brandt Consolidated
CF Industries
Chemical Industry Council of Illinois
CHS Inc.
Corn Producers Association of Texas
D.B. Western, Inc.
Far West Agribusiness Association
Florida Chamber of Commerce
Florida Farm Bureau Federation
Florida Fertilizer & Agrichemical Association
Florida Strawberry Growers Association
Food Industry Environmental Council
GROWMARK
Hardee County Farm Bureau (FL)
Hillsborough County Farm Bureau (FL)
Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association
Indiana Beef Cattle Association
Indiana Farm Bureau
Indiana Grain & Feed Association
Indiana Grain and Feed Association
Indiana Office of Energy Development
Indiana Plant Food & Ag Chemicals Association
Indiana Plant Food & Agricultural Chemicals Association
Indiana Pork Producers Association
Indiana Professional Dairy Producers
Indiana State Department of Agriculture
Indiana State Poultry Association
International Raw Materials, Ltd.
J.R. Simplot Company
Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association
Kansas Grain and Feed Association
Minnesota Agri-Growth Council
Minnesota Corn Growers Association
Minnesota Crop Production Retailers
Missouri Agribusiness Association
Missouri Farm Bureau
Montana Agricultural Business Association
National Chicken Council
National Corn Growers Association
National Grain and Feed Association
National Grange
National Meat Association
National Pork Producers Council
National Turkey Federation
NCRA
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Nebraska Agri-Business Association
Nebraska Farm Bureau
New Mexico Peanut Growers Association
North Carolina Peanut Growers Association
North Dakota Agricultural Association
North Dakota Barley Council
North Dakota Farm Bureau
North Dakota Grain Dealers Association
North Dakota Grain Growers Association
North Dakota Soybean Growers Association
North Dakota Stockmen’s Association
North Dakota Wheat Commission
Northern Canola Growers Association
Northern Pulse Growers Association
Ohio Corn Growers Association
Ohio Farm Bureau
Ohio Poultry Association
Ohio Wheat Growers Association
Oklahoma Ag Retailers Association
Oklahoma Grain & Feed Association
Oklahoma Peanut Commission
Oklahoma Seed Trade Association
Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association
Panhandle Peanut Growers Association
Peace River Valley Citrus Growers Association
Peanut Growers Cooperative Marketing Association
Polk County Farm Bureau (FL)
PotashCorp
Rocky Mountain Agribusiness Association
Sarasota County Farm Bureau (FL)
Society of American Florists
South Carolina Fertilizer & Agrichemicals Association
South Carolina Peanut Growers Association
South Dakota Agri-Business Association
South Dakota Farm Bureau
South Dakota Grain & Feed Association
Southern Crop Production Association
Southwest Council of Agribusiness
Terra Industries Inc.
Texas Agricultural Cooperative Council
Texas Farm Bureau
Texas Grain & Feed Association
Texas Peanut Producers Board
Texas Sheep & Goat Raisers Association
Texas Wheat Producers Association
The Andersons, Inc.
The Fertilizer Institute
The McGregor Company
Todd Staples, Commissioner, Texas Department of Agriculture
Tom Farms (Kip Tom, CEO)
United Egg Producers
Virginia Peanut Growers Association
W.B. Johnston Grain Co.
Western Peanut Growers Association
Western Plant Health Association
Wyoming Stock Growers Association
