Last week the president revealed his new Clean Power Plan. This plan, supposedly introduced to fight off climate change, requires states to greatly reduce their carbon emissions. The EPA wants carbon emissions to be reduced from 2005 levels by 32%. This is a particularly tall order since some states get up to 96% of there energy from coal.
This drastic cut in carbon emissions will greatly increase the cost of energy across the United States. Power rates in some regions could triple from their current price, and that isn’t even including the massive subsidies taxpayers will have to cover. So what is the benefit for this massive increase in power? Surely this drastic action by the president will put an end to climate change, right? The answer couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The Clean Power Plan, for all of the cost and hardship it will bring to the United States, will only prevent 0.015°C of warming by 2100. That is not a misplaced decimal, that is not a rounding error, that 0.015°C is all of the benefit the Clean Power Plan will have. This policy, which threatens to eviscerate the economy of the United States, will only prevent 0.015°C of global warming.
In response to his critics, President Obama called the foes of the Clean Power Plan lazy and unwilling to do what it takes to save the Earth from climate change. I am sorry Mr. President, but I am not lazy. I just do not want to watch as my future is crucified on a cross of carbon.