New Report: EPA Analysis of Clean Power Plan Inaccurate

The EPA’s calculations overestimate benefits and underestimate costs; EPA-sponsored climate model finds CPP will have no measurable impact on world climate

NEW YORK, NY – The Clean Power Plan remains as controversial as ever as it awaits its legal fate. A new report from the Manhattan Institute finds that the EPA’s analysis significantly overestimated the direct benefits of CO₂ reductions and co-benefits of accompanying reductions in air-pollutant emissions and significantly underestimated costs of meeting future electricity demand.

Author Jonathan Lesser comprehensively examines the assumptions and models on which the EPA’s analysis is based and shows how they impact the findings. He finds that the EPA’s cost-benefit analysis relied on multiple layers of arbitrary and unrealistic assumptions—leaving the conclusions of the analysis dubious. For instance, estimates of future CO₂ emissions rely on assumptions about future economic growth and the “carbon intensity” of the economy, both of which are highly uncertain.

Lesser concludes that the CPP will increase annual electricity costs by the billions in exchange for CO₂ reductions that will have no measurable impact on global temperature.

Click here to read the full report.