Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus need to answer one question for their constituents before they vote on Barack Obama’s carbon cap-and-trade scheme.

The question is simple:

How much will carbon caps cost the average Montana ratepayer?

And until that question is answered - directly, in dollars, and without any political smoke - Tester and Baucus have a responsibility to vote ‘no.’

Aren’t you curious about the expense?  When you read all the doom-and-gloom nonsense of global warming, have you ever put a dollar figure on how much you’d personally be willing to pay to fix  the purported problem?  Wouldn’t you prefer that your Senator vote ‘no’ on increasing your monthly utility bill?

Because, bottom line, Obama’s standard operating procedure to Gang Green means an increase in your power bill. Coal-fired electrical power plants will pay new taxes. Those taxes will show up on your power bill. The question for Montana’s elected representatives is simple:

How much? Tell us, in dollars for the average ratepayer per month. 

That question has never been answered. It’s one of the two Great Global Warming Questions. The other is: will global warming be cured if the United States taxpayer foots the bill for massive reductions in greenhouse gases while every other country on the planet continues to pollute?   That answer is obviously ‘no.’ 

Equally obvious, forcing expensive new ‘global warming’ regulations on America while the rest of the world continues with business as usual is a blow to family-wage jobs in the United States. Those few still employed in manufacturing will find their jobs disappearing at an ever-quickening pace as companies move operations to an ‘unenlightened’ corner of the planet.  America suffers while China pollutes. Does that make any sense?  Do you like the idea of an America divided into two classes: those flipping burgers at $7.50/hour and those employed by the government at $25? 

Did America forge the greatest nation in the history of the world through carbon caps, tattoos and lattes, or did we build factories?  

Rhetoric aside, there is one question that I’d like Sen. Tester or Sen. Baucus to answer:  How much will Obama’s carbon-cap scheme increase the monthly utility bill of the average western Montana ratepayer? 

I’m looking forward to the answer.