Jun. 26--News reports say House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pulled out all the stops to pass cap and trade legislation, scheduled for a vote today or tomorrow. Pelosi will have to get it done without U.S. Rep. Dan Boren's vote and, we suspect, the votes of a number of other conservative Democrats. Good for them.

Boren, D-Muskogee, and others won't help pass what effectively would be the largest tax increase in U.S. history -- and for little or no actual benefit. Pelosi and her allies represent districts so liberal that kind of a vote doesn't matter. It does in real-world America.

Under cap and trade, the government sets limits for greenhouse gas emissions across the economy. Businesses under the caps could sell emissions credits to those over them. Over time caps are lowered to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases.

Various estimates say it would cost the economy $9.4 trillion by 2035. A CRA International study found 3.2 million jobs would be lost by 2025, even with new "green" jobs. The same study showed the average U.S. household's purchasing power would drop by $2,127 by 2030.

Pelosi & Co. want to increase the cost of fossil-fuel use so Americans will use less of it. The economy will be saddled, jobs will be lost and Americans' standard of living will slide.

For what? For minuscule reductions in global temperature, even as China and India run their economies full bore!

Pelosi might get her victory. Thank goodness for the U.S. Senate.

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