The Boxer-Kerry Kerry-Boxer climate change bill leaves unaddressed key elements of how it intends to constrain carbon emissions. Unfortunately, it appears to be following the pattern the House followed, which resulted in a political bidding process that picked winners and losers.

The losers would be millions of Americans and American companies who rely on gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products to get to work and to school and to run their businesses. As we've talked about on this blog, analysis shows that Waxman-Markey would kill more than two million American jobs, drive fuel prices up to between $4 and $5 a gallon and make our nation more dependent on imports of gasoline and other fuels.

We strongly urge the Senate not to follow the same pattern. It should craft a bill that provides equal treatment across the U.S. economy, recognizes and encourages more use of clean-burning natural gas, preempts EPA climate regulation under the Clean Air Act, and avoids the severest consequences of Waxman-Markey.

That means not just higher energy prices and lost jobs but also jobs and emissions sent abroad. A study of the U.S. refining industry by EnSys Energy projected Waxman-Markey could sharply increase our refined product imports and reduce investment in U.S. refining by as much as 88 percent or $90 billion.

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Update on September 30, 2009: With America depending on fossil fuels for a substantial portion of its energy, consumers will wonder why their elected leaders in Washington are supporting policies that will likely raise energy costs and constrict supplies without delivering a realistic and measurable benefit to the environment. Read API's updated statement on the bill.