WASHINGTON — Institute for Energy Research President Thomas Pyle issued the following statement after the release of EPA’s greenhouse gas rules on existing power plants:
“President Obama is delivering on his promise to send electricity prices skyrocketing. With this new rule, Americans can expect to pay $200 more each year for their electricity. On top of higher electricity prices, Obama’s regulatory cap and trade plan will tax American households hundreds of dollars more per year, harming the elderly, the poor, those on fixed incomes, businesses, families, and local institutions like schools and hospitals.
“After the defeat of cap and trade in Congress and subsequent routing in the 2010 midterm elections, President Obama vowed to find another way to skin this cat. Today, he has done that by levying one of the costliest federal regulations in U.S. history—bypassing Congress and the American people in the process.
“Our economy is shrinking and Americans are dropping out of the work force left and right, and yet President Obama has decided to move forward with a regulation that could kill as many as 224,000 jobs annually. Either he is oblivious to the fact that Americans are struggling or he simply does not care.
“These rules are rooted in the belief that this will help the environment, but where are the benefits? Even the administration’s own analysis shows that this rule will have a negligible impact on global temperatures at an enormous price tag. The president is willing to raise electricity costs and sacrifice hundreds of thousands of jobs for nothing more than a fraction of a degree in temperature reduction. Simply put, this plan is all economic pain for no environmental gain.”
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