The economics are significant. According to Frederick Seitz, Ph.D., chairman of the George C. Marshall Institute and past president of the National Academy of Sciences, compliance with the Kyoto Protocol would require draconian reductions of roughly 30 percent in the use of fossil fuels in the United States.
George Melloan notes in The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. Department of Energy estimated that reducing carbon dioxide emissions to meet the Kyoto target would cut gross domestic product by $397 billion in 2010 and boost electricity prices by 84 percent. James K. Glassman, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, cites a study by economic consultants WEFA Inc. that predicted compliance would reduce the average household income by $2,700 and cost 2.4 million jobs in the United States.