FreedomWorks, an organization whose primary purpose on this earth is to halt progressive legislation on behalf of corporations, is turning its sights from health care reform to climate change.

To FreedomWorks' credit, their campaign to crush meaningful health care reform seems to have been a complete success. The health care reform bill that is currently being debated in the Senate Finance Committee is nothing short of a gift to the health insurance industry. Proof of that can be found in how health care insurance stocks have been performing lately.

Now, FreedomWorks is primed to go after climate change. Their specific target is the Kerry-Boxer climate change bill that was introduced to congress yesterday. In an attempt to preempt, FreedomWorkds issued a press release denouncing the bill without ever having read it. In part, the press release reads

A cap and trade bill being introduced today by Senators John Kerry (D, Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D, Calif.) threatens to devastate the U.S. economy and yet have no tangible environmental benefit.

The wrong-headed policy contained in this legislation would place draconian restrictions on carbon emissions. In fact, the carbon reduction targets set in the Kerry-Boxer bill are even stricter than those included in the cap and trade bill recently passed by the House, H.R. 2454 (commonly referred to as Waxman-Markey). This means that previous estimates of the potentially devastating consequences of cap and trade legislation to include over 2.3 million jobs lost, $4 a gallon gas, and increased annual energy costs of $1,300 per American household, could be on the low end.

To make matters worse, the legislation fails in its stated purpose of helping improve the environment. The best estimates of any cap and trade regime show that the resultant change in temperature would be no more than 0.07 degrees Celsius – barely enough to measure.

If you're wondering where FreedomWorks obtained the figures they cite, you're not alone. No source is given.

Additionally, the accusations FreedomWorks makes apply to the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House of Representatives, not the Kerry-Boxer bill they're aiming to kill. This detail should not be lost as it helps reveal that the Kerry-Boxer bill wasn't yet available to review at the time FreedomWorks issued their press release criticizing it.

The un-sourced figures FreedomWorks use to attack the Waxman-Markey bill are questionable as well. Let's look at some of their claims:


FreedomWorks: "2.3 million jobs lost"
Facts: A Center for American Progress report finds, "that spending $150 billion on clean-energy investments would create roughly 1.7 million jobs". source

FreedomWorks: "$4 a gallon gas"
Facts: The Energy Information Administration, a research arm of the Energy Department found, "the [Waxman-Markey] bill’s provisions would cause electricity rates to rise 3 percent to 4 percent and gasoline prices to rise 23 cents a gallon by 2020". source

FreedomWorks: "increased annual energy costs of $1,300 per American household".
Facts: In reality, "the overall impact on the average household, including the benefit of many of the energy efficiency provisions in the legislation, would be 23 cents per day ($83 per year)." source


Regardless of what the facts are (and they've ignored them before), FreedomWorks will be working long and hard on defeating any and all climate change legislation that comes before congress.

If progressives remain silent as they did during the health care reform debate, there is a good chance FreedomWorks and those that side with them will win this battle too.