So far this April, there seems to have been a major uptick in the number of fear-mongering WSJ opeds claiming the Clean Power Plan (like every other energy sector regulation) will cause skyrocketing electricity prices and blackouts.
While these claims aren't new, the rapid-fire rate of publication does suggest the anti-climate forces see electricity prices and blackouts as their strongest arguments against the Plan and the best way to defend their corporate masters from pesky regulations.
Like most everything the WSJ editorial page prints on climate and clean energy, the attacks have little basis in reality. Media Matters does a great job providing a point-by-point rebuttal, with solid citations and quotes that plainly contradict the WSJ's anti-regulatory alarmism. Union of Concerned Scientists has a special 4-pack of rebuttals debunking various industry-backed reports used to support these anti-EPA claims.
Over at EDF, the former Commissioner of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission, Cheryl Roberto, provides insight on the grid's ability to handle the Clean Power Plan changes, concluding that, "In 45 years of implementing the Clean Air Act, clean air standards have never caused the lights to go out. And nothing about the proposed Clean Power Plan – with all of its tremendous flexibility – will alter that record."
Unfortunately, proving the WSJ wrong yet again probably won't alter the its record either. Their broken record, as it were.
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