Congress must kill Clean Power Plan
Billions in tax relief, more jobs and a better environment in which to do business are the things smaller government and reduced regulations have brought to Wisconsin. It’s time the federal government did its part to help Wisconsin continue this positive momentum.
According to Chief Executive Magazine, under Gov. Scott Walker’s leadership, Wisconsin has moved into the top 10 best places in the country to do business, up 31 places from 2010. And, Wisconsin’s job forecast has improved from 49 to 23 in the nation, says Forbes.
Wisconsinites also have seen nearly $5 billion in tax relief. Much of this can be attributed to the legislative and regulatory reforms implemented by Walker.
Wisconsin clearly is doing its part to improve growth and opportunity. It’s now time for the federal government to lend a hand by cutting regulations on the industries that literally power our economic growth — oil, natural gas and coal.
These three energy sources accounted for nearly 84% of the fuel consumed in Wisconsin in 2014, which means that reducing the cost of producing these fuels would have a significant positive impact on powering Wisconsin’s economy. Allowing the draconian regulations imposed by former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) would have the exact opposite effect.
The CPP would cost consumers an additional $214 billion by 2030, with 45 states seeing double-digit increases in electricity costs and consumers in 16 states getting hit with increases of 25% or more. All this to reduce the global temperature by a statistically insignificant 0.02 degrees Celsius by 2100.
Closer to home, the CPP would increase the average electricity price in Wisconsin by 19%, force the average household electric bill to jump $225 a year and cost our industrial manufacturers an astonishing $105,094 more per year if implemented. These dramatic price increases would cost the Wisconsin economy 21,000 jobs and result in $1.82 billion less in disposable income by 2030. That’s a significant increase, and it hits the poor and elderly the hardest.
Thankfully, Walker took action to prevent this from happening. In 2015, Wisconsin joined a lawsuit against the CPP. The next year, Walker issued an executive order barring state agencies from complying with the CPP. He said the CPP “would place an undue burden on the Wisconsin ratepayers and manufacturers.” The governor’s action saved Wisconsin taxpayers an estimated $13 billion.
Through his executive orders, President Donald Trump has made significant progress toward reducing these costs, but, as we’ve seen, one executive order is easily struck down by another. We need Congress to take action to stop these job and economic growth-killing regulations, and it needs to act now.
Congress must pass legislation to kill the suffocating Clean Power Plan once and for all, as well as make it more difficult for future administrations to implement unnecessary environmental regulations with a stroke of the president’s pen.
We’ve seen what smaller government and reduced regulations have done for Wisconsin. Brett Healy is president of the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy.