Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
10/31/2014
Positive market signals which will spur innovation and a strong economy are potential benefits of the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon regulations for existing coal-fired power plants, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said during the McCourt School LEAD Conference held at Georgetown University late last week. McCarthy called climate change a challenge but also “an opportunity to reinvigorate the way we make and the way we use energy, because we have not been investing in the energy world for decades in the way that the United States should be investing. Under President Obama’s leadership, EPA is using this opportunity to really seize momentum. And just like before, despite the naysayers and special interests that tend to pop up when regulatory issues arise, the people of the United States actually get it. They know the cost of climate inaction is too high. They know we can, and they know we must, make energy clean, efficient, and affordable,” she said.
The regulations, developed under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, set state-specific carbon emissions reduction goals and require each state to develop action plans to meet those goals. Critics have said that the plan will cost billions to implement and will deal a blow to the economy. McCarthy stated otherwise however, saying that “when we cut carbon pollution, we reduce harmful pollutants that are contributing to traditional problems like smog and soot, things that mean a lot to American families today. From those reductions alone, every dollar we invest in our Clean Power Plan will return $7 dollars in health benefits. In 2030, listen to these numbers, total climate and health benefits could reach up to $93 billion dollars, $93 billion. And here’s the thing, the energy efficiency measures that our plan helps to put in place by 2030 will actually result in energy bills being eight percent cheaper than they are today,” she said.
McCarthy also said the implementation of the carbon regulations will spur investment in clean energy technologies and thus boost innovation. “We are providing a long-term path for investment to happen, and we are already seeing innovation being spurred. If we can just continue to send this signal at home in the United States, we will be able to take a leadership position and position the United States to be successful in the quest for the technologies that address climate today and those that will continue to address that in our future.”
Unless Congress Acts, Clean Air Act Best Option
While economists generally agree that a carbon price would be the most efficient way to cut carbon emissions, congress has failed to successfully implement such a measure, leaving the responsibility of reducing these emissions to the EPA, McCarthy said. “Here’s the issue, what you’re pointing at are basically strategies that are available to the United States Congress to move forward. The president relied pretty heavily on trying to work with congress in the first term and he will continue, certainly, to work with congress as we move forward, but that approach didn’t really yield the kind of finish line that we were hoping to have in terms of getting action taken. So the president, at this point, is just recognizing that while congress is stalled, we have the ability to move forward,” she said. “We’re also going to continue to reach out to congress, because if congress wants to take this up, we think there perhaps are more comprehensive approaches that could be done.”
