Madison – According to a new study published jointly by The Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University and the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy of Madison, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed global warming rules will hit Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector particularly hard. Looking at 2030, the year this regulation is set to be fully phased in, Beacon/MacIver find:
- Wisconsin’s industrial sector will be hammered with average additional electricity rates of $100,094/yr per employer
- Commercial sector employers will pay an additional $1,530/yr
- Average residential customers will pay an additional $225/yr
- State disposable will be nearly $2 billion lower
- Approximately 21,000 Wisconsin jobs will be lost
- Compliance costs will equate to $920 million in 2030 alone
“EPA’s actions will take food off the table for thousands of Wisconsin families and reduce the competitiveness of our manufacturers,” said Eric Bott, Director of Environmental and Energy Policy for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). “Coming up with an extra $225 to pay the electric bill will be tough for a lot of folks. Demanding that our manufacturers pay an additional $100,000 per year could be job crushing.”
According to WMC, the MacIver Institute’s study reaffirms the findings of the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, which reported late last year that EPA’s rule could cost up to $13.4 billion to implement in Wisconsin and lead to utility rate hikes as high as 29%. These costs would come on top of the estimated $10.5 billion Wisconsinites have paid and are currently paying through their electric bills for investments made in renewable energy, air pollution control equipment at state coal plants, and energy efficiency programs.
“Making matters worse is the fact that EPA’s proposal, costly as it is for Wisconsin, won’t substantially impact global climate or temperature,” said Bott. “Every ton of CO2 reduced by America under EPA’s rule will be met with over 16 tons of increased emissions from the rest of the world. To put it another way, the entirety of America’s reductions in 2030 will be offset by just 13.5 days of emissions from China.”
A recent analysis by NERA Economic Consulting applied the same methodology EPA used to develop and its 2012 emissions standard for light duty vehicles to EPA’s current proposal and found that under EPA’s plan:
- Atmospheric CO2 concentrations would be reduced by less than half of a percent in 2050.
- Average global temperature would be reduced by less than 2/100th of a degree (0.016 °F).
- The rate of sea level rise would be reduced by 1/100th of an inch (roughly the thickness of three sheets of paper).
WMC is Wisconsin’s State Chamber of Commerce and Manufacturers Association, representing nearly 4,000 member companies in every sector of Wisconsin’s economy.
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