As I am writing this comment, I am listening to C-SPAN in the background, with the U.S. House of Representatives debating “The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,” commonly referred to as the Waxman-Markey bill (named after the primary authors).

The bill caps the amount of carbon dioxide, or CO2, that can be released into the atmosphere by factories, refineries, utilities, and others. It also creates a complicated system of carbon offsets and trading so entities that need to emit more CO2 than they have permits to cover can buy permits or offsets from other entities that have more than they need to meet the cap.

The goal of the legislation is to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are released in an effort to slow or mitigate climate change, which is blamed on man’s burning of fossil fuels. What the bill ultimately does is impose a tax on carbon-based energy that will work its way into the entire economy.

So, I have one question that I wish I could get a straight answer to: “What will be the cost of the Waxman-Markey climate change legislation?”

Although this seems like a simple question that should lead to a simple answer, the reality is that the 1,200-page legislation is so complex, and has so many variables, that it is virtually impossible to come up with a cost that can be agreed upon by the various players involved. For instance, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), an agency established to provide Congress with “objective, nonpartisan, and timely analyses,” came out with an estimate that the Waxman-Markey bill would cost the average U.S. household $175 in higher annual energy costs in 2020. They don’t attempt to determine the overall cost to the economy. And, when you review the CBO report, you find a number of variables that, if any are changed, dramatically change the cost impact.

Then the American Petroleum Institute released a report that put the bill’s cost at a minimum $3,300 annually per family, including a projected impact on the overall economy. And, just to drive the cost debate in the other direction, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy released its assessment that the Waxman-Markey bill, combined with the recently adopted federal stimulus legislation, will spur energy conservation and efficiency, lowering household energy costs by an average of $4,400 annually by 2030.

We have an economist on the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association staff that has been “crunching numbers” for several weeks. After countless runs, we can tell you that the Waxman-Markey bill will result in increased electric costs, but how much we can’t say definitively. On the low end it, could be only a 5 to 10 percent increase. On the high end, it could double or triple the average electric bill.

What we can’t tell you is what the cost will be over all aspects of the economy. We can’t tell you how many “green jobs” it will create or how many manufacturing jobs it will kill. If you tell us the cost for a permit to emit 1 ton of carbon in 2020 or 2030, or what the fuel mix will be of our power supply, or how much the price of coal or natural gas will be because of the Waxman-Markey bill, we might be able to give you a cost projection, give or take hundreds of dollars.

On the other side of the debate, we also can’t tell you the cost of doing nothing. This one is difficult. We are still working on the numbers.

The House passed the bill on June 26. So, it’s on to the Senate.

The Apostle Luke writes in Luke 14:28: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?”

All we ask of Congress is to sit down and estimate the cost. Then tell us what that is.