War always has a cost. The War on Coal declared last Tuesday by Barack Obama is no different. The costs will be real, substantial, and be felt in every American household.
Barack Obama says there is no more time to wait around for Congress to act. Seeking the once fashionable Consent-of-the- Governed would take too long. The President ridiculed those with dissenting opinions – including a growing number within the scientific community; "We don't have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society," he said in his speech at Georgetown University.
The "Flat Earthers" apparently include 16 of the most highly credentialed environmental scientists in the world who jointly penned an editorial in the June 28, 2013 Wall Street Journal explaining that, "There is no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to 'decarbonize' the world's economy."
Obama justifies both his unilateral action and cost of the War on Coal with the same explanation Progressives use for virtually every item on their agenda. We simply must "combat this threat on behalf of our kids." It's always for the children, isn't it?
As we said in a post yesterday, "Obama's new War is a war against ourselves. Virtually all of the coal is domestically produced supporting American jobs, families and communities, and providing a huge portion of the affordable energy necessary to support citizens and businesses throughout the nation."
A team of Heritage Foundation Scholars analyzed and quantified the cost of Obama's War on Coal for just the first years from 2015-2030. Led by David W. Kreutzer, Ph.D., Research Fellow for Energy Economics and Climate Change, the Heritage scholars confirmed our assertions from yesterday's blog post. Obama's war "with no compelling scientific argument" to justify it, will most certainly have tangible, harmful consequences for every American citizen.
Here's a link to the entire Heritage report, and below is a key excerpt with the summary findings:
While it may not be clear exactly which policies will be used, it seems clear that zeroing-out coal-fired electric power plants is a goal of this Administration’s environmental team. This paper will analyze the economic impact of setting such a target. We look at the first 16 years of a 20-year phase-out of coal power: 2015–2030.
The analysis shows significant economic losses extend beyond the obvious areas of coal mining and power generation. In particular, we find that by 2030:
- Employment falls by more than 500,000 jobs;
- Manufacturing loses over 280,000 jobs;
- A family of four’s annual income drops more than $1,000 per year, and its total income drops by $16,500 over the period of analysis;
- Aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) decreases by $1.47 trillion;
- Electricity prices rise by 20 percent;
- Coal-mining jobs drop 43 percent; and
- Natural gas prices rise 42 percent.