Making global warming cuts expensive but feasible for power industry

WASHINGTON — Making big cuts in emissions linked to global warming could trim U.S. economic growth by $400 billion to $1.8 trillion over the next four decades, a new study says.

The study published today by a nonprofit research group partially funded by the power industry concludes that halving emissions of carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas linked to global warming — will require “fundamental” changes in energy production and consumption.

The Electric Power Research Institute said the most cost-effective way to reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was to make many changes at once, including expanding nuclear power, developing renewable technologies and building systems to capture and store carbon dioxide emitted from coal plants. Reducing demand for electricity also is key, the institute said.
Still, the shift to cleaner technologies will raise the price of both electricity and natural gas, whose use in power generation is expected to grow in a carbon-constrained world.

The EPRI cost estimate is based on a 50 percent cut in total U.S. carbon emissions from 2010 levels by 2050. Without such a cut and the shifts in technology it would bring, the Energy Department projects that U.S. carbon emissions will rise from about 6 billion metric tons a year in 2005 to 8 billion metric tons by 2030.

The report calls for more modest cuts in emissions than some proposals currently being considered in Congress. Bigger cuts could well be more expensive.

However, a leading environmental group said the study missed a key point: the economic costs of not doing anything to stop global warming — which they warn will lead to problems as diverse as flooding damage, refugee crises and less snow at ski resorts.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette