Manufacturers are very concerned about the impact on the economy and jobs of the across-the board cuts in federal spending now set to kick-in on March 1st. But replacing these job-killing cuts with job-killing tax increases on the energy industry, as suggested by the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), is not an acceptable solution to the problem.

The manufacturing sector is the largest energy consumer in the United States, using one-third of the nation’s energy. Imposing new energy taxes will result in higher energy costs for manufacturers, driving up the cost of domestic production. And it doesn’t stop there. Raising taxes on domestic energy producing companies will make it more expensive to produce everything in this country. Increased fuel costs will affect all Americans, both manufacturers and consumers, by increasing the cost of products made and the cost of products purchased. As with the sequester, jobs will be lost.

Millions of current jobs will be at risk and future job creation thwarted if new energy taxes were enacted. Given our nation’s persistent, high unemployment rate and anemic economic growth, both the sequester and new energy taxes are bad ideas. It’s time to find new ideas to jumpstart our economy and stop trying to pick winners and losers based on a partisan agenda.