The EPA's Backdoor Cap and Trade Policy's Obvious Impact

This week, National Journal asked a rather interesting question this that implied it head has been fully tucked in the sand when it comes to recognizing the long term implications of Obama’s environmental policy.

As the EPA readies itself to enforce a handful of rules limiting carbon emissions – a backdoor Cap and Trade policy known as the “Tailoring Rule,” which severely and arbitrarily limits the amount of greenhouse gas emissions many industries are now allowed to produce – the National Journal sleepily wonders what the effect these rules will have on the affected industries.

There are a few responses that take a theoretical approach to the question, but National Journal and it’s guests don’t have to go far to look for a real answer, supported by research. According to a study published recently by the National Alliance of Forest Owners, the Tailoring Rules will have a definite – and immediately felt – negative impact on the economy.

A newly released economic impact study finds that the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule” jeopardizes over 130 renewable energy projects, between 11,000 and 26,000 green jobs, and $18 billion in capital investment across the country. The risk of reduced capacity also could prevent as many as 30 states from meeting national renewable energy targets.

In addition, the disappearance of the biomass industry, for example, would cut into the US energy supply, sapping over 5000 megawatts of renewable electricity generation from the US grid and eliminating over 50 million tons of wood biomass from the energy marketplace. And that finding follows on the heels of another study, published by the University of Washington, stating that the EPA’s Tailoring Rule would result in a continued reliance on fossil fuels and a long-term increase in greenhouse gas emissions from a number of industries.

In a conference call related to the study, one expert in charge of the study indicated that the Tailoring Rule’s impact would be felt most severely in states where biomass is a developing and growing industry. The EPA would not hard to find, either.

Obviously, the answer to National Journal’s question is clear.