BOUNTIFUL — A doubling or tripling of power rates could be in the offing if a “cap and trade” program in President Obama’s budget becomes law.

That’s the prediction – and fear – expressed by Bountiful City Manager Tom Hardy, Tuesday. The issue was among sessions held by the American Public Power Association last week in the nation’s capital.

“The amount of money you will pay for power in this country is destined to go up significantly,” he said. “The best estimates we’ve seen, based on an initial price of $20 a ton, this program could cost citizens of this country $80 billion a year.”

That’s money that would be tacked onto consumers’ electric utility bills in the form of a carbon tax.

“It’s an amount that we can’t even comprehend,” the city manager said. “How much it will affect us and everyone else depends upon where the price finally settles out.

“When they fully implement it, I think you could look at costs doubling,” Hardy predicted.

“They’re talking about balancing the budget by 2012. One article said it could cost $9,000 a year for a family of four,” said Bountiful Light & Power director Allen Johnson.

“That is too high. It’s money that comes from one pocket to go to another,” he said.

Cap and trade is generally defined as government tax on carbon (coal) production, of which Utah and the West have a lot, and providing credits to so-called “green” companies, such as those who produce renewable energy like wind or solar power.

The environmentally friendly companies could then sell the credits they’ve earned to so-called “dirty” companies.

“Utilities don’t grow money,” Johnson said. “We get it from our customers, the citizens of Bountiful. We work every day to give the most reliable, inexpensive product that we can.

“If we start raising that cost to get it (funds) back, they’ve (customers) got to pay it on their utility bills so we can pay the carbon tax,” he said.

“Our concern is not if it takes from carbon to bolster new technologies. Let’s do better technologies,” Johnson said, “ but not just tax for a new revenue stream.”

With coal being zeroed in on for a tax, Bountiful, Utah and the West would be taxed to a big degree, as upward of 80 percent of the region’s power is coal-generated, Johnson said.

He heard from at least one Utah congressional office that cap and tax backers are trying to get the process passed by Memorial Day.

“It’s going to cost the consumer,” Johnson reiterated. “We (residential customers) may be able to find an extra $100 to $200 a month to survive, but when you talk about business on a global level, more and more business will go to renewables, or something less obtrusive, so people will pay more for renewables.”

“The proposal that (President) Obama has is to take the great majority of that money, (from tax) not to improve our energy program by installing nuclear or some other more carbon-friendly alternative, but to give low and moderate income people a tax break,” said Hardy.

“It takes it out of the pocket of people who use electricity and then puts it back according to income. It’s a huge income redistribution program,” he said.

“It has nothing to do with saving the environment, making significant changes to our carbon footprint. Here’s a way we can tax people. We’ll call it a carbon tax,” Hardy said of federal officials’ intent.

This is talked about for electricity, even as rates for natural gas are declining.