EPA Power Plant Rule Could Cost Up To $479 Billion – Register Your Opposition Today!
According to a study released last week by NERA Economic Consulting, the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity and others, the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft rule to regulate emissions from existing power plants would cost U.S. businesses and consumers from $366 billion to $479 billion over 15 years. To put these costs into context, the report notes those figures are more than eight times what the federal government spends annually on unemployment benefits and more than 4.5 times what it spends on food stamps. The report says electricity prices would spike by more than 10 percent in 43 states while average costs in 14 states would increase by 20 percent or more. (Click here to see how your state would be affected.) The rule could also increase natural gas prices by 29 percent.
The incredible price tag comes despite the fact that, as White House science adviser John Holdren told lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the rule would “make only a modest dent in global greenhouse-gas emissions.”
MSCI members are reminded they still have plenty of time (until mid-December) to write to the EPA to say you oppose this rule. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy’s website has a draft letter our members can use – simply sign and submit the form letter on the website or personalize it by telling the EPA what your company would have to cut in order to pay for the increased energy prices. Would you have to cut employment? Benefits? Investment?
MSCI also reminds readers this rule would affect each U.S. state in very different ways. According to Adam Riedel at Manufacturing.Net, the EPA regulation could also “reach far beyond power plants.” Riedel warns, “Executives and managers of facilities with high electricity usage or GHG emissions should closely monitor the development of the regulatory plans in the states in which they operate” because “these plans will likely pose regulatory challenges for some and business opportunities for others.” Read his full column here.