Texas Won’t Benefit from the Clean Power Plan

The New York Times reported that "a new study to be released Thursday found that [states like Texas] would be among the biggest economic winners under a regulation proposed by President Obama to fight climate change."

This apparently disturbs the New York Times and the study's authors because many of these same states are opposing the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan (CPP).

Ignoring for the moment the left's bewilderment by the concept that conservatives are willing to make personal sacrifices in order to do what is right, the truth is that the conclusions of the study in question, Remaking American Power, are fatally flawed. Despite the fact that Texas might benefit by increased sales of natural gas, this benefit will be bested by the compliance costs, including the economic damage done by completely destroying our competitive electricity market and the affordable, reliable electricity it has provided us.

One problem the study takes as a given much of the economic analysis by the EPA about the costs and benefits of the CPP. As a result, the study underestimates the CPP's costs and overstates its benefits.

For instance, we know that the cost of replacing the Texas competitive market with the command and control market required to comply with the CPP will cost at least $3 billion a year. The EPA also estimates that the energy efficiency mandates under the CPP will cost Texans $2 billion a year by 2029. That is $5 billion a year in high costs on Texans, just for starters. The renewal energy mandate will add at least another billion to the cost. Just for starters, we have $6 billion in costs.

Now, the study does show the Texas region (including OK, LA, AR) would benefit because of up to $16 billion of new revenue. However, that is without considering the energy efficiency portion of the CPP. With that as part of the calculation, and the subsequent almost flat increase in energy use forced on U.S. consumers over the next 15 years, the benefit to the entire region falls to only $4 billion.

People who support the CPP and who issue studies like this all have one thing in common; a complete lack of belief in the free market to handle the economic that trouble our country. This is the case in spite of the fact that it is constant government intervention like this over the years that has gotten us into most of these problems in the first place.

It is no surprise to supporter of the free market that Texas is a national leader in energy efficiency because of its free market polices. This efficiency has led to less pollution, less CO2 emissions, and more wealth-not just for Texans, but for all Americans.

Believers in freedom intuitively know that a federal government takeover of the entire U.S. electricity market will end in failure and great harm to Americans-particularly the poor.

Fortunately, for those who don't share this belief, we also have the facts on our side. The EPA's Clean Power Plan will harm Texans overall no matter what benefits might accrue to the renewable energy, energy efficiency, and natural gas industries.

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