Cold rain didn’t stop a throng of anti-global warming activists from protesting the hot air coming out of Washington about global warming.

More than 300 people traveled from New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia to Capitol Hill to oppose Sen. John Warner (R-VA) and Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) cap and trade bill in the drizzling rain Monday. If passed, the bill would cost taxpayers $1.2 trillion over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“It’s an economy-destroying, job-killing nightmare,” said Annie Patnaude, director of communications for Americans for Prosperity, the anti-tax advocacy group that hosted the protest.

The National Association of Manufactures and the American Council for Capital Formation commissioned an independent study, carried out by the Science Applications International Corporation to determine what impact Warner-Lieberman, or S.2191, would have on the economy. The study forecasts the bill, which aims to cut emissions by 63 percent by the year 2050, could depress the nation’s Gross Domestic Product between $151 billion and $210 billion and cost the average household $2,927 in disposable income by the year 2020. The study also predicts the legislation could cause gas prices to rise 144 percent by 2030.

“With the economy on the brink of recession, now is not the time to enact job destroying policies,” Patnaude said.

Debate on the legislation could begin this June. To rile up opposition to the bill, AFP will fly a 70 foot hot air balloon emblazoned with the words “Global Warming Alarmism. Loss Jobs. Higher Taxes. Less Freedom” at several locations across the country. AFP planned to fly the balloon on Capitol grounds Monday but Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates federal airspace, would not grant the group a permit to do so. Instead, a smaller inflatable balloon was substituted for the Washington event. The 70-foot hot air balloon will be flown in Kansas City, Missouri on April 30.

Other stops of the hot air tour will include events in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. More information about the tour can be found at www.costofhotair.org.