Climate Change bill would cost each household $79 – $146 per year

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: Call it putting a price on carbon or a national energy tax (depending on your political persuasion) – we got a cost estimate from the EPA today on how much sweeping climate change legislation would cost each American household.The answer? Between $79 and $146 per household per year.

Supporters of climate change legislation said the amount is not too much for Americans to bear.

At a press conference on Capitol Hill, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-CT, pointed out that’s less than a dollar per day per household.

“Is the average household willing to pay a dollar per day ? I think the answer is yes,” said Lieberman, pointing to the national security implications of sending money overseas for oil while at the same time not investing enough in new energy markets.

There’s a good chance that President Obama will use his speech tonight to mention sweeping climate change legislation that Democrats want to pass through Congress. What better wakeup call for a clean energy future than the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, supporters say.

The bills, in various forms on Capitol Hill, would create a “cap and trade” system – set a price on carbon emissions. Republicans call them proposals for a national energy tax and accuse Democrats of trying to take advantage of the emergency.

“The most recent crisis in the Gulf, we anticipate, the president will seize on in his Oval Office address to the nation tonight to make an argument for a national energy tax, which is euphemistically referred to around this town as cap and trade,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky. “I can't think of anything more inappropriate than to suggest that a national energy tax is an appropriate reaction to this environmental disaster in the Gulf.”

But supporters of a sweeping bill say it is an essential component of any new energy policy.

“We're not going to ever be energy independent unless we put a price on carbon…. which is to reflect the real price that carbon takes on our society,” he said.

“We're looking at the mother of all markets here folks, and we're wondering if we should get into it here?” said Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, who wrote the most recent cap and trade bill with Lieberman.

Democrats do not currently have the 60 votes they’ll need to pass a climate change bill through the Senate. They’ll need at least one Republican to join them and right now they don’t even have every Democrat. The House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill last year.

Lieberman, who played a pivotal role in stripping the controversial public option out of the health reform bill, is not deterred. He said most recent big-ticket bills do not have 60 votes when they hit the floor, but only get there through debate and negotiation.