U.S. consumers will see higher electricity prices if Congress passes the Obama administration's proposed global-warming legislation without giving utilities the ability to emit some greenhouse gases, electricity providers warned Thursday. “Revenues associated with pricing greenhouse gases would be returned to the very consumers who would be at risk for paying higher energy prices,” said Richard Morgan, who heads Washington's Public Service Commission. Higher prices would be the result of legislation that would put a price on the greenhouse emissions linked to global warming. The electricity providers said the best way to keep the industry from passing on the cost of reducing greenhouse gases is to initially give away allowances to emit pollution, not sell them, as proposed by President Barack Obama. Obama's budget assumes that allowances will be sold and uses the projected $650 billion in revenue to help people pay for higher energy costs and to develop new ecologically-friendly energy sources.
