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Page added on November 13, 2015
New EPA Rules Could Raise Energy Prices
Critics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan say the new regulation will cost up to $292 billion and potentially raise electricity prices in 47 states.
“States should be braced to pay higher costs,” said Laura Sheehan, senior vice president for communications for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. “Consumers only lose in the Clean Power Plan.”
The numbers came from NERA Economic Consulting, a firm based in Boston that said it used state-of-the-art economic modeling to get its results.
In an email to Watchdog.org, EPA officials disagreed with the NERA study, which was funded by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which is dead-set against the Clean Power Plan.
“EPA has not reviewed this report,” the agency email said. “EPA’s extensive analysis shows that the CPP is effective, achievable and affordable.”
The EPA has estimated that the CPP will cost $8.4 billion but will deliver climate and health benefits worth an estimated $34 billion to $54 billion per year in 2030.
But NERA’s numbers say the costs will be much higher by the time the CPP is fully effective—between 2022 and 2033.
When electricity usage is at its highest, the NERA study claims that all 47 states subject to the regulation could see higher electricity prices.
During such peak usage, NERA projects that 41 states could have double-digit increases in electricity prices, with 28 states seeing 20 percent increases:
Map from America’s Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
Critics dismissed the estimates NERA provided earlier this year, in part because the provisions of the CPP weren’t final.
But the ACCCE said these new numbers for NERA are based on the plan’s final figures, now that the CPP has been placed in the Federal Register.
“They can grouse all they want, but these numbers come from EPA’s own data,” Sheehan said.
Paul Bailey, senior vice president of policy and federal issues for ACCE, said there are two big reasons the NERA numbers show higher costs than the EPA’s numbers.
One is that NERA thinks the costs of energy efficiency will be higher than the EPA’s estimates of 11 cents a kilowatt-hour and subsequently decreasing over time.
“We disagree,” Bailey said. “You do the easy things first and the harder things later.”
Another difference: NERA says the EPA assumes that about 100,000 megawatts of coal—about one-third of the nation’s fleet—will be retired before the CPP even goes into effect. By contrast, the NERA model estimates that 47,000 megawatts of coal will be retired.
Because the EPA assumes more coal retirements before the Clean Power Plan takes effect, NERA says, fewer coal units will be left to close, allowing the EPA to claim that the Clean Power Plan will cost less.
“We think we did a better job of modeling,” Bailey said, saying the NERA numbers are based on five compliance scenarios and the EPA’s on two.
The EPA stands by its estimates.
“The Clean Power Plan provides ample time and flexibility to states and utilities and builds on trends toward cleaner electricity generation that are already well underway,” the agency said in its email to Watchdog.org.
Considered the most sweeping regulation in the EPA’s history, the Clean Power Plan marks the first time the agency will regulate carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s existing power plants.
“Critics claim your energy bills will skyrocket,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in 2014. “They’re wrong. Any small, short-term change in electricity prices would be within normal fluctuations the power sector already deals with. And any small price increase—think about the price of a gallon of milk a month—is dwarfed by huge benefits.”
McCarthy has long maintained that for every $1 spent on the cleaner standards, the public will see $7 in health benefits.
But the CPP has led 27 states to file a federal lawsuit, claiming that the plan exceeds the EPA’s authority and will cost utility payers too much.
Some 18 states have filed their own court motions in support of the CPP, leaving just five states—including Alaska—that have not weighed in:
The legal papers have been filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. No court date has been set, but opponents of the CPP want the court to issue a stay to keep the plan from going into effect until the appeals court rules on its legality.
19 Comments on "New EPA Rules Could Raise Energy Prices"
makati1 on Fri, 13th Nov 2015 10:48 pm
Raising prices is the easiest way to ration anything. And energy and food will be the first items rationed in the US. Eventually all production facilities, including farms, will be ‘nationalized’ and controlled by the government. Especially if we are in a shooting world war soon.
ghung on Fri, 13th Nov 2015 10:52 pm
People and corporations need to start paying the full costs of their consumption and profit taking.
Ignoring Mak. He isn’t ‘we’; ex-patriot trying to rationalise the ‘ex’ thingy.
dooma on Fri, 13th Nov 2015 11:24 pm
“America’s Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity”. Clean coal. That is an oxymoron that is up there with fun run.
dooma on Fri, 13th Nov 2015 11:31 pm
And what is it with the use of the term “coalition”. Think tank would be an insult I am guessing?
makati1 on Sat, 14th Nov 2015 5:22 am
ghung, I don’t have to ‘rationalize’ anything. An intelligent, rational, researched decision doesn’t need ‘rationalizing’. Just action.
If you don’t like the message, just don’t read it. ‘Killing’ the messenger doesn’t change the message.
Davy on Sat, 14th Nov 2015 6:11 am
Mak, that’s the problem you are conditionally rational and your intelligence is directional. Your message is an agenda. In this article you obviously go off topic and insert you usual blather.
makati1 on Sat, 14th Nov 2015 7:24 am
Davy, the moderators don’t seem to mind the ‘off topic’ comments on here as they are the majority and do not censor in any way I have seen in my years here. There is not enough oily material to keep this blog popular without other topics like this to stir disagreement and ‘hits’ to their site.
You have an agenda also, but you don’t see it. That is a common fault of Americans. No mirrors. Supporting the town bully only gets you beat up also when the time comes that the others have had enough.
The world is not sweetness and light. It is breaking up, forming sides and approaching war. The US is losing it’s allies one by one as they see how they are being used and that there are alternate stronger allies available to side with.
The US is dying and that death is because of all of the shit they have been, and are doing, to sovereign countries that will not bow before them. Suicide is up in the US and the country is on the same path to its end. It will not be missed.
That 99% of the problems in the world today can be traced back to the US, it is hard to not connect the dots with the articles presented here for comment. So, don’t read my comments if you don’t like them. I can ignore your rants also. Fair trade.
Davy on Sat, 14th Nov 2015 8:21 am
Mak, my current agenda is doom and prep. I have made that clear over and over on this board. I am seeking to help anyone on this board that needs and wants help in this regards. I am representing a point of view and challenge the cornucopians to prove their optimism. I am telling all those that will listen we have grave problems we need to prepare for. I am trying to sort through the BS to point out the most important ones to consider because there are so many that sometimes it is overwhelming.
As for your flag waiver blather I constantly criticize and put down America. It is a big target for all that is wrong in the world. I do it in a fair and balanced way from one who lives and breathes America. You are disqualified from commenting on America because you have a personal agenda of hate, resentment, and anger for America. This prevents you from presenting the truth in your comments. We get enough propaganda pieces on this site. We are constantly shooting down BS mainstream media propaganda. Unfortunately you are just as bad as the mainstream media. Frankly you are worse because you have no code of conduct.
Part of my agenda is to discredit and diminish your lies Makster. I am going to fight you to the bitter end. I am younger than you and likely in much better health. You are breathing filthy air and always subject to violence from living in a crowded urban environment. You have no health care and no one to take care of you when you get sick. Just be ready for when 20MIL people of greater Manila get desperate. One day your hate blather will go silent. That will be a happy day for me.
Kenz300 on Sat, 14th Nov 2015 10:41 am
Climate Change is real…. it will impact all of us……we need to move to clean energy production with wind and solar power and clean energy consumption with electric vehicles……… Fossil fuels are the cause of Climate Change….. we need to deal with the cause….
Solar Beats Gas in Colorado – Renewable Energy World
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/08/solar-beats-gas-in-colorado.html
——-
Wind Power Now Cheaper Than Natural Gas for Xcel, CEO Says – Renewable Energy World
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/10/wind-power-now-cheaper-than-natural-gas-for-xcel-ceo-says.html
Kenz300 on Sat, 14th Nov 2015 10:42 am
Wind and solar are the future…..fossil fuels are the past.
Half Of All Power Plants Built Last Year Were ‘Green’
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/renewable-power-plants_5641fd3fe4b0b24aee4bbd49
Bob Owens on Sat, 14th Nov 2015 7:44 pm
The minute we try to base policy on weather or not is will cost more, environmental rules will usually lose. This economic modeling being talked about is a good example. Depending on your assumptions you can get any results you want. Here is a small FACT for everyone: Some utilities in Texas are now giving away electrical power at night for FREE! That’s right: FREE! They have way more than they can use. Wind power can be the way of the future if we want it to be. The Utility companies are starting to get the message and are installing more wind/solar all the time. With any luck that will be our future.
makati1 on Sat, 14th Nov 2015 8:50 pm
Bob, everything today depends on the financial system not collapsing. Everything. That the house of cards is shaking should be a warning to everyone that the end is fast approaching.
Usually, when a country gets to this point it goes to war. This time the world is shaking and I believe that a world war is around the corner. The US seems to be beating every hornet’s nest it can find trying hard to get it started. We shall see.
Boat on Sun, 15th Nov 2015 12:20 am
mak,
Maybe the house of cards are shaking because many countries are lousy money managers. Dumb as a bunch of rocks.
makati1 on Sun, 15th Nov 2015 1:13 am
Noat, maybe it is because they believed the bullshit flowing out of Washington and New York too much? After all, look behind the curtain and you will likely see a Central Bank manipulating the economy and money of each country for the benefit of the elite. We live in a Lords & Serfs world now.
makati1 on Sun, 15th Nov 2015 1:14 am
Sorry, Boat … no proofreading …
Mike616 on Sun, 15th Nov 2015 6:55 am
The cost of Global Warming, on the West Coast, right now should be all the warning you need.
But, Lazy Capitalism, where the carbon industry REFUSES to change, will Doom Us All.
Davy on Sun, 15th Nov 2015 7:37 am
Mike, you need to include the step child of the carbon industry the “renewable industry” in the “refuses to change”. Mike, this is about more than lazy capitalism, carbon industry, and the carbon industry’s step child renewables this is about overshoot of carrying capacity green and brown. The change now is should center around lifestyles and attitudes towards excess deaths over births (population) and economic decay (consumption). We are being forced into change by nature. This forced change will have little impact by any industry or group. The change needs to include preparations for descent at a global level which will be ugly and painful but necessary. How else can you describe natures will other than necessary?
Bob Owens on Sun, 15th Nov 2015 12:12 pm
makati1, I appreciate the fact that a collapsed financial system could cause a lot of projects to stop. Still, the world will keep moving and everything done now will help in the future, no matter what happens. My point is that we need to do the best we can every day and not let fear of events in the future keep us from acting today.
Kenz300 on Mon, 16th Nov 2015 9:13 am
Fossil fuels are the past……… wind and solar are the future….Climate Change is real… we need to deal with the cause (fossil fuels)