Analysis: Alabamians huge losers in Obama's power plan

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The White House, through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is releasing Monday a detailed update to the Obama administration’s power plan, including what the Associated Press calls “unprecedented” limits on emissions at electricity plants.

The AP reports the plan will make consumers huge “losers,” increasing electricity rates as power providers spend billions to install the mandated wind turbines, solar panels, and hydro plants.

The president’s plan calls for a 32 percent cut compared to 2005 levels of greenhouse gas emissions, though some states will receive specific, more lenient goals. The plan will also incentivize states to act quickly with credits to those who boost renewable energy production by 2020 or 2021.

All of this is projected by the EPA to reduce global temperatures by .0018 degrees Celsius by 2100.

“The Environmental Protection Agency’s new Clean Power Plan continues the Obama administration’s theme of ignoring the legal limits on its executive authority in order to satisfy a political agenda that places the lowest priority on the rights of coal industry workers and American consumers,” said Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange in a press release after the announcement.

“Under the EPA rule, Alabamians’ average annual household energy bills could rise by more than $800 a year by the time the plan is fully implemented. This places an undue burden on those who can least afford it, including the poor, the elderly and others on fixed incomes. What’s more, it punishes as many as 16,000 Alabamians whose jobs are dependent upon the coal industry.”

U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) said the rule will cost Americans an estimated $8.4 billion annually, making it the costliest rule in history.

“The Obama administration continues to force costly and unnecessary regulations on hardworking American families,” Rep. Smith said in a press release Monday afternoon. “The Clean Air Act was never intended to regulate carbon. Yet the president and his Environmental Protection Agency are sidestepping Congress to push their extreme environmental agenda. The final plan released today will shut down power plants across the country, increase electricity prices and cost thousands of Americans their jobs.”

Alabama currently produces 65 percent of its electricity from coal and natural gas, according to research by the Alabama Policy Institute.

Though a negligible amount of Alabama’s electricity is produced by wind and solar, the Alabama Power Company announced last month it is beginning an initiative to increase the amount of power generated by renewable sources by 500 megawatts over the next six years. This program will be paid for by willing customers who sign up to receive more of their power from renewable sources.

Alabama Power, the state’s largest electricity provider, has already spent more than $3 billion in recent years complying with the EPA’s increased mandates.

Ike Pigott, a spokesperson for Alabama Power told Yellowhammer Monday afternoon that the Alabama-specific impact of the new rules would depend on the EPA’s mandates for the Yellowhammer State.

The White House is claiming the plan will end up saving consumers $85 on their energy bills in 2030, a claim, opponents of the new regulations say, which will not be borne out by reality.

Additionally, opponents of the Obama administration’s plan say the EPA and its counterpart in each state don’t have the authority to implement these rules without supporting legislation passed by Congress. A majority-Democratic Congress had the opportunity to pass such legislation in 2010, but was unable to do so.

Murray Energy Corporation, an Ohio-based coal company, is filing separate lawsuits against each of the new EPA rules, as well as an overarching suit against the plan in its entirety.

“This illegal rule will adversely restructure the electric power system in America and will force every state to radically change their energy policies,” the company said in a statement Monday. “It will dramatically increase the cost of electricity for all Americans, with no environmental benefit whatsoever.”

In June the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the EPA, saying its rules on mercury emissions imposed through the Clean Air Act were unlawfully implemented without a cost-benefit analysis.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority in the 5-4 decision, said “It is not rational, never mind ‘appropriate,’ to impose billions of dollars in economic costs in return for a few dollars in health or environmental benefits. Statutory context supports this reading.”

The decision does not strike down the rule, but merely requires the Agency to go back and consider the costs.

None of this should come as a surprise, as President Obama made clear during his 2008 campaign that his plan for energy production would “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTxGHn4sH4
(Video Above: Discussing his energy plans during the 2008 campaign, now-President Obama says “Under my plan for a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”)

At the end of the day, the plan comes down to the Obama administration picking winners and losers instead of pursuing an all-of-the-above energy strategy.