By PACE, Special for USDR
The Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) issued a statement today that criticized the Environmental Protection Agency’s unprecedented mandate on carbon dioxide emissions under its Clean Air Plan, especially the change to demand more reductions by 2030.
“While this rule will do nothing to affect the agency’s climate indicators, it holds the strong potential to raise electricity prices, cost American jobs, endanger reliability, and make our nation less competitive,” PACE said. The PACE statement noted that it warned EPA a year ago that while its proposed mandate “would not change the earth’s temperature, it would change power bills.”
“Now, with the final rule made public, we can be even more sure that EPA has presented the American public with a lousy bargain,” PACE said. “It is critical that our nation’s leaders, particularly the President and the Congress, intervene to limit the damage from this bad rule,” the statement concluded.
PACE supported the widespread alarms about EPA’s Clean Power Plan raised by business, consumer organizations and political leaders. Many predicted that EPA’s mandate will produce an economic calamity and greater income inequality. “Any increase in the cost of electricity most dramatically impacts those who can least afford it, and the fallout from the EPA’s rule will cascade across the nation for years to come,” the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) said in a statement.
The National Black Chamber of Commerce said EPA’s rule will produce “lost jobs, lower incomes and higher poverty rates for the 128 million blacks and Hispanics living in America.” Manufacture Alabama called the rule a “step backward for manufacturers.”
Others questioned the strategy and timing of EPA’s effort. “Incentivizing more clean energy options is the right path forward. This rule does exactly the opposite. It is another massive tax on energy at a time when the American economy needs more affordable energy to help get our economy growing again,” said Alabama Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed.
The Consumer Energy Alliance called for “a retooling” of the CPP that gives credit for the significant reductions in emissions America has accomplished, “pays deference to states’ authority” and avoids the likely problems down the road from ongoing court proceedings.
PACE concurs with these positions and urges a reconsideration of EPA’s final rule by the White House and Congress.
SOURCE PACE (Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy)
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