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The pre-carbon tax yearly fee was calculated by taking the average monthly amount the average American pays on their utility bill, $99.70 and mutliplying it by the number of months in a year (12), which equals $1196.40.

The new carbon tax yearly fee was calculated by adding $3100 to the pre-tax yearly fee of $1196.40. The $3100 was taken from Leader Boehner’s office which used the following method:

How do Republicans arrive at the $3,100 dollar figure?  It’s pretty simple.  We took MIT’s own estimate of a key “cap-and-trade” bill from the 110th Congress (S. 309) cosponsored by then-Senator Obama that said S. 309 would generate $366 billion in revenues in 2015.  S. 309’s emissions targets track the emissions targets outlined in Obama’s budget, which the Congressional Research Service has confirmed.  We took MIT’s own number – $366 billion – and divided that by the number of U.S. households (we assumed 300 million people and an average household size of 2.56 people…which is 117 million households).  Using this formula, you get roughly $3,000 per household ($3,128 using current Census figures, a little less if you use projected Census figures from 2015).  Now, this doesn’t even account for costs resulting from higher prices for food and all other products that will cost more to produce under their program.

The $10,000 per year maximum was calculated by analysts at ATR using the below method originally released here.

Tax and energy analysts at Americans for Tax Reform have calculated the true size of the Pelosi-Obama-Reid energy tax hike on families.  By adding together the tax increase costs of the carbon tax, Sec. 199 repeal, and other energy tax hikes in the Obama budget and dividing by the number of families, it’s clear what this annual tax hike would be.  The average American family would pay, directly or indirectly, approximately $10,000 per year in new energy taxes.

The new monthly rate was calculated by dividing the new carbon tax yearly rate by the number of months in a year (12) and the new carbon tax increase was calculated by subtracting the pre-carbon tax monthly rate from the new total monthly rate.

For any questions on methodology, please leave a comment below and ATR staff will address the issue.