House Republicans on Thursday published a study asserting most states in the U.S. will lose under the American Clean Energy and Security Act 2009, also known as the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill which proposes setting a price for carbon dioxide emissions.

The study shows a breakdown of electricity costs for consumers in each state and notes only four states on the west coast and few in the east would benefit from the Markey-climate bill. States like Texas would lose $1.6 billion in 2012, according to the study.

The reason this will lead to higher costs is that, according to the allowance allocation formula proposed in the bill, some states will not have enough allowances to cover their emissions from electricity generation, the document says.

To make up the shortfall, red states will have to seek high-cost, non-CO2 emitting electricity sources, reduce electricity production and consumption, or purchase allowances from the green states, or purchase domestic and international offsets, likely a combination of the three, the study says.

Some critics of the GOP document say that although it says it is based on Energy Information Administration and Congressional Budget Office data, it does not indicate the particular method of study used.

They also speculate the study could have been led by a coal giant firm and based on a CBO analysis of a particular cap-and-trade program but not the Waxman-Markey bill.

In that study, the CBO calculated the gross per-household cost due to the imposition of price on emissions would be $1,600 per year. However the CBO specified that analyzing the Waxman-Markey bill program which has different design features, could lead to significantly different costs.

Climate