The Green Technocrat

The EPA released their analysis of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES or just the Waxman-Markey Bill as it is being called after the two representatives who are sponsoring the bill), stating that passage of the bill will lead to a 7% decrease in consumer electric bills by 2020 thanks to increased energy efficiency measures, and a reduction of coal generated electricity by up to 50 GW by 2015.

Daniel J. Weiss, Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, had this to say about the EPA analysis (full article here).

The main argument conservatives and big oil and coal companies use against the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is that it would cripple American households with a crushing energy tax. To make that claim, they have distorted cost estimates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and conducted their own biased studies. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency obliterated these phony numbers with the release of its economic analysis of H.R. 2454. The EPA estimated the bill would actually lower household electricity bills.

EPA’s findings are consistent with the independent Congressional Budget Office analysis released on June 19th. CBO determined “that the net annual economywide cost of the cap-and-trade program in 2020 would be $22 billion—or about $175 per household.” CBO did not evaluate the impact of the energy efficiency measures on consumer spending on utilities.

The bottom line is that independent analyses found that ACES would cut spending on utilities, as well as have minimal overall costs to the average household – somewhere between 22 to 48 cents a day. Hopefully, representatives will pay heed to these government studies and ignore conservatives’ counterfeit estimates when they vote on the American Clean Energy and Security Act this Friday.

Let’s get off our asses and get this passed.  It is far from perfect, relying heavily on reductis to come from new nuclear facilities, unconventional natural gas use, and other less than clean technologies, but it is a good step in the right direction.  Contact your congressman/woman and tell them you want this passed, NOW.