For many families in Louisiana and across the country, gas prices continue their steady rise and utility rates are mounting. During these difficult economic times, higher energy prices are the last thing struggling Americans need, yet that is precisely what our hard-working citizens might get.

If congressional leadership’s climate change bill, also known as the “cap and trade” legislation, becomes law, energy prices would, in the President Obama’s own words, “necessarily skyrocket.”

Many seem to forget that it was just a year ago when hard-working Americans were paying over $4 a gallon at the pump. The impact on families and businesses was overwhelming.

Instead of providing more affordable energy prices, this cap and trade legislation has the potential to destroy jobs and burden American families even more.

If passed, this bill will impose a yearly average of $3,100 in higher energy costs for middle-class families in an effort to reduce greenhouse emissions.

It is clear that for the sake of our environment and our economic security, our nation needs and deserves a better plan than the Democrats’ national energy tax.

I am sure it seems to some American families and business owners that no one is making an effort to halt this risky cap and tax, but House Republicans have been pushing a comprehensive energy reform alternative.

I am proud to support the American Energy Act, the Republican solution that will produce more American energy in an environmentally safe manner, will encourage the use of alternative fuels to reduce carbon emissions, such as clean coal and nuclear, and will promote increased efficiencies and progressive technologies to advance our nation’s energy potential.

This “all of the above” approach will increase our energy dependence, while the cap and trade legislation could potentially depress demand through more government control.

With Congress poised to take up the cap and trade legislation in the coming weeks, I urge citizens who support the policies and ideas in the American Energy Act to continue voicing their views and urging Congressional leadership to act.

Suggestions from across the aisle may traditionally be ignored, but the will and the needs of the American public should never be.

The American Energy Act is a plan that I am proud to stand behind. It is a plan that will boost American energy production, while also investing in new fuel technologies that will power our nation into the 21st century.

The American people want energy independence, not a national energy tax. The American Energy Act will provide this independence. I hope that Congress will reject the Democrats’ misguided legislation, and consider the responsible Republican alternative.

Rodney Alexander is a U.S. Congressman representing Louisiana.