EPA Plan Will Lead to Fewer Jobs and Higher Electricity Rates
Texas’ balanced energy portfolio is what drives our state’s economic growth and provides job security to millions of Texans.
Texas energy jobs aren’t just in oil fields, mines, and power plants. The affordable electricity rates provided by our diverse energy supply ensure that other employers, such as those in our vast manufacturing and technology industries, maintain and grow their operations in Texas. Our diverse energy mix also keeps residential electricity bills low, ensuring that more money stays in the pockets of hardworking Texans.
EPA has taken direct aim at Texas, imposing burdens far greater than any other state. The “Clean Power Plan,” a proposal announced last June by EPA, would require a 38 percent reduction in Texas’ carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 2030. Though Texas’ carbon dioxide emissions rate is lower than the national average, EPA is attempting to force Texas to shoulder a disproportionate share of the nation’s reductions, which will be greater than those of 27 other states combined.
EPA has predicted that over half of Texas’ coal generation will have to be shut down under the proposed plan, with plant closures across the state. What does this means for Texas? Lost jobs, higher electricity rates and greater chances of rolling blackouts.
A 2014 University of North Texas study found that the Texas coal industry provides a total economic benefit of over $7 billion annually, supports over 24,000 jobs that pay over $1.8 billion, and contributes over $690 million in state and local taxes. Losing those economic benefits is only the tip of the iceberg of the impact of EPA’s rules on the Texas economy, however, as the biggest economic impact will come in the form of higher energy bills.
By 2020, EPA’s rules are projected to increase annual power and gas prices in Texas by $42 billion and nationally by $284 billion. This will lead to a 54 percent increase in household electricity and gas bills, forcing the average Texas household to spend an additional $1,050 per year on electricity and gas. The impact to large consumers of electricity will be much more dramatic, especially in the manufacturing and petrochemical sectors of the Texas economy.
The Clean Power Plan will fail to provide any meaningful benefits to the U.S. or Texas. President Obama has pledged to reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025, which he claims prompted China’s pledge to peak skyrocketing carbon dioxide emissions by “around 2030.” While advertised by the administration as a major step forward, China and the rest of the developing world will continue to increase carbon emissions so that reductions here will be dwarfed by increases abroad. In fact, by 2030, all of the projected CPP emission reductions will be offset by Chinese emissions in just 13½ days.
We do not want to return to rolling blackouts or large-scale outages, as we saw in Texas in February 2011, when a mix of a severe arctic blast and a sharp rise in electrical demand forced ERCOT to initiate rolling blackouts temporarily.
We cannot control the weather. But we can control policy.
Affordable and reliable electricity is the backbone of Texas’ economy and our economic prosperity is contingent upon the adoption of sensible policies that maximize the use of our state’s abundant, diverse and affordable energy portfolio, including oil, natural gas, coal, and renewables. This balanced portfolio, based on free market principles and a sound regulatory framework, is critical to Texas’ continued profitability, competitiveness and economic success.
President Obama’s unworkable plan would be economically disastrous for Texas and poses very real electric reliability concerns. Letting Washington bureaucrats decide how Texas generates electricity will have catastrophic consequences. The Clean Power Plan is all pain, no gain.
See the article here.
- On February 28, 2015