EPA’s Clean Power Plan: Huge Electric Sector Impacts, Undetectably Small Climate Benefits — Study

Hot off the presses —

A new report by NERA Economic Consulting finds that EPA’s Clean Power Plan will:

• Be the most expensive environmental regulation ever imposed on the electric power sector. The rule will cost state power sectors between $41 billion and $73 billion per year (EPA estimates ‘only’ $8.8 billion annually), and $336 billion to $479 billion over 15 years.
• Cause double digit electricity price rate hikes in 43 states. Electricity prices will increase by an average of 12% to 17%. Fourteen states will face price increases up to 20%.
• Retire 45,000 megawatts (MW) of coal generation capacity (more than the electricity output of all New England states combined). That’s on top of 70,000 MW of coal-fired generation in 42 states already slated to retire due to other EPA policies and low natural gas prices.
• Have disproportionate impacts on low- and middle-income households and seniors on fixed incomes, who already struggle with high energy costs.
• Have no measurable effects on climate change. By 2050, the Plan would, in theory, reduce sea-level rise by 1/100th of an inch (the thickness of three sheets of paper), and reduce average global temperatures by less than 2/100ths of a degree.

To read the full NERA study, click on Potential Energy Impacts of the EPA Proposed Clean Power Plan. To read a brief overview of the study’s conclusions, click on NERA Study Key Points.