Rep. Geoff Davis (KY) wrote his weekly newsletter this week on "The Hidden Health Care Cost of Cap and Trade." Here is an excerpt:
In June, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi successfully forced passage of controversial cap and trade legislation (H.R. 2454) that will cost American families thousands of dollars each year in new energy costs. This legislation creates a national energy tax that is expected to increase utility bills, raise the price of a gallon of gas, push food prices to new heights and generally increase the cost of nearly every consumer product, including health care.
A November Time Magazine article entitled Putting Health Care on an Energy Diet reported that the U.S. health care infrastructure is one of the country’s top energy consumers, second only to the food sales and services industry. Its annual energy costs clock in at more than $6.5 billion, a number that continues to rise steadily to meet patients’ growing needs. Hospitals use twice as much energy as a typical office building, due in part to the fact that lights, heating and cooling systems, laboratories, and high-tech equipment must be running twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The Time article also noted several initiatives already underway, without government mandates, to reduce energy consumption within the industry.