Regulation of carbon will result in higher electric bills!

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Federal curbs on emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the “greenhouse gases” blamed as a principal cause of climate change, will likely soon become a reality. It’s just a matter of which government branch gets there first: legislative, executive—or both.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), part of the executive branch, announced on Dec.7 that evidence surrounding climate change shows greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people” and that the gases—mainly CO2 from burning fossil fuels— should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

Recently, Glenn English CEO of NRECA, warned“The finding puts a ‘foot in the door’ for EPA to introduce sweeping new regulations without Congressional oversight that could impose strict limits on carbon emissions from power plants, driving up electric bills.” The concern is that once CO2 emissions fall under Clean Air Act regulation, all emitters of CO2—vehicles, factories, refineries and fossil fuel-fired power plants among others—will be subject to EPA regulation.

About 90% of Ohio’s electricity comes from coal-fired generation. The current legislation before congress unfairly penalizes consumers in fossil fuel-dependant states like Ohio by raising their electric bills, and essentially subsidizes consumers in other regions of the country by reducing their electric bills.

Senate leaders have admitted that climate change legislation has stalled and will likely be addressed sometime in the spring. This legislative log-jam makes it all the more important to pay careful attention to new regulations the EPA may propose. Click here to make your voice heard regarding climate change legislation.


What about the environment?
Ohio's electric cooperatives are environmental stewards.  We're already investing $750 million in pollution controls for our coal-fired plants to make them among the world's cleanest.  About 5% of our power comesfrom renewable or lower emitting sources.  We've led the way in load management for more than 30 years, delaying the need for new power generation plants and saving our members millions of dollars.  Technology to remove CO2 does not exist and is not expected to for many years. Electric power produced from alternate generation sources is more expensive and can't meet the reliability demands of our members.