WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) introduced a new resolution opposing efforts to impose a national tax on carbon-intensive energy, which has historically supplied at least 80 percent of America’s energy needs.

“Imposing a national tax on the types of energy we rely on most would drive up costs for hardworking families and run our economy into the ground,” Blunt said. “Anyone who goes to the grocery store, flips a light switch, or goes to the doctor would feel the effects, particularly the low and middle-income families that can least afford it.”

According to a 2013 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, low-income families already “spend a larger share of their income on goods and services whose prices would increase the most [under a carbon tax] such as electricity and transportation.”

Blunt continued, “A national energy tax would also raise costs on the small business owners, farmers, truckers, and manufacturers that we rely on to grow the economy. It would lead to lower wages for American workers, and destroy the equivalent of millions of jobs. This resolution puts the Senate on record against a carbon tax and I hope my colleagues will join me in protecting all Americans from this misguided policy.”

A 2013 study by the National Association of Manufacturers found the overall impact of a carbon tax on American jobs would be staggering. According to the report, the lower real wage rate resulting from a carbon tax would cost the economy the equivalent of between 3.7 million and 20 million jobs by 2053.

Blunt has introduced similar measures as amendments to the budget resolutions for the previous three fiscal years. Blunt’s resolution is cosponsored by 24 senators, and supported by several groups including American Energy Alliance, Americans for Prosperity, Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, and Americans for Tax Reform.