Jun 11, 2016 2 min read

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan has been promoted to the American people as having a vital impact on the environment and climate change. Recently, Charles McConnell, a former assistant secretary of energy in the Obama administration, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, saying essentially that this claim was patently false. To say that he eviscerated the Clean Power Plan would not be an overstatement.

McConnell began by stating his belief in climate change and that the emissions from mankind have a role in contributing to it. He is not a denier. The Clean Power Plan accomplishes little while imposing great costs disproportionately on seven energy producing states, including Pennsylvania. We will experience double-digit growth in what we pay for electricity while receiving virtually no environmental benefit.

Nationwide, by 2025, the Clean Power Plan will account for a 0.2 percent reduction in CO2 emissions. In turn, this will account for a 0.01 degree Fahrenheit reduction in world temperatures. Sea-level rises will be reduced by the width of two human hairs. What the Clean Power Plan accomplishes for the environment in this period offsets three weeks of CO2 emissions from China.

Most alarmingly, the EPA will not specifically respond to the impact of Clean Power Plan on the reliability of electric power. Just a few winters ago, had we lost just one power plant, we would have had rotating blackouts in a freezing-cold winter.

Regretfully, Gov. Tom Wolf, in contrast with 24 other governors has said Pennsylvania will comply with the Clean Power Plan. Perhaps, if Wolf and our other officials learn of this, we will come to our senses and not implement this foolish plan.

Neal E. Roth

McMurray