Double-dose of EPA regulations will make your bank account scream

By Marjorie Haun  @ Watchdog.org / October 28, 2015 / 2 Comments

As if turning Colorado’s Animas River jack o’ lantern orange wasn’t frightening enough, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new “climate initiative” policies, if implemented, have some real scares in store for energy consumers.

The agency’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), officially published in the federal register Friday, is the first federal measure to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, ozone, and other minor emissions from existing power plants.

By forcing energy producers to comply with the CPP mandate of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent by 2030, these shock-worthy standards will also force states to increase the percentages of costly, subsidized wind and solar-based electricity since coal-burning power plants that cannot afford the reduction will ultimately shut down.

The Independence Institute, a free-market think tank headquartered in Denver, compiled a white paper in April titled “Colorado and the Clean Power Plan: Expensive, Ineffective, Illegal and impossible.” According to their research, if EPA’s CPP is implemented, beginning in the year 2020:

• American consumers, businesses and industries will pay $284 billion more each year in power and gas costs
• The total annual cost of power and gas will total more than $750 billion
• The average annual U.S. household’s combined electricity and gas bills will increase by $680.00

The EPA also announced earlier this month a stricter standard for ozone, tightened from 75 parts per billion to 70 ppb. This new standard was published in the Federal Register Monday.

Many states see standard this as nightmare to attain, even in some of the nation’s national parks. While emissions that form ozone have been reduced by 50 percent since the 1980s, according to the Institute for 21^st Century Energy, many states have not yet been able to attain the 75 ppb standard. If implemented, the Institute, which labels this regulation the most expensive in American history, warns “non-attainment,” or the inability of local governments to comply, will result in:

• An annual loss of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) loss of $140 billion
• Decreased electrical reliability
• Increased forced outages
• Potential delays in highway funding
• Shuttered coal-fired power plants
• The closure of manufacturing and industrial facilities
• Skyrocketing food costs as agricultural producers are negatively effected
• Costly restrictions on small businesses that will harm consumers
• Expensive regulations on vehicles and fuels
• Lower local and state tax revenue due regulatory strains at all levels

These two regulatory products of President Obama’s climate change agenda are touted as necessary to protect the environment and spare the planet from the consequences of man-made global warming.

However, the CPP, for example, will have almost no effect on global temperatures, as acknowledged by its own architects. A July 15 post in Climate Depot recounts testimonies from both former and current EPA chiefs admitting the CPP would result in less than a one-degree global temperature change. Lauded as “enormously beneficial” by current EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, she revealed in congressional hearings that the agency projects a drop in global temperature of one one-hundredth of a degree Celsius will result from full implementation of the CPP.

In response, states and businesses aren’t hiding under the covers. Legal challenges to the CPP have been filed by attorneys general from 26 states and multiple industry groups, alleging the rule violates the Clean Air Act. As for the new ozone standard, a lawsuit released Tuesday against the EPA by five states is challenging whether the agency “conducted an appropriate scientific review before issuing its new standard,” according to The Hill.

The new ozone standards will become effective in 60 days, while 90-day public comment period begins for the CPP.

This article was written by a contributor of Watchdog Arena, Franklin Center’s network of writers, bloggers, and citizen journalists.

Click here to LEARN HOW TO STEAL OUR STUFF!

Marjorie Haun

Marjorie Haun is a freelance journalist and author. Her works include: "The Heroes of the Vietnam War: Books for Children,” numerous articles, editorials, book reviews, and humor pieces for The Daily Signal, American Thinker, the Post Independent, Watchdog Arena, and others. She makes her home in beautiful and rugged Western Colorado. Follow her on Twitter: @Reagan_Girl

marjoriehaun@yahoo.com