GOP lawmakers are citing recently released Treasury Department documents to purport that the administration has "privately concluded" a cap-and-trade law would cost American households $1,700 a year, a claim that Democratic strategists and environmental groups are calling bunk.

Democrats maintain that reports from the Congressional Budget Office and Environmental Protection Agency have estimated a cap-and-trade system would cost households between $110 and $170 a year.

The Republicans' assertion, based on a blog post written Tuesday night by conservative CBS columnist Declan McCullagh, started circulating in e-mails today from the National Republican Congressional Committee and the offices of House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana and Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

"Republicans are trying to scare people away from the energy bill," said Tony Kreindler, media director for the Environmental Defense Fund's climate change division. "They lost on the science argument a long time ago, so they've moved on to economics."

NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsay argued that the economic costs of a cap-and-trade system amount to a "job-killing National Energy Tax." Lindsay also referenced a report by the conservative Heritage Foundation estimating that costs to households would be $1,900, similar to what McCullagh suggested in his post.

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