{"id":12037,"date":"2016-01-13T13:48:36","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T19:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=12037"},"modified":"2016-01-13T14:49:28","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T20:49:28","slug":"state-of-the-union-recap-we-can-afford-obamas-clean-energy-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2016\/01\/13\/state-of-the-union-recap-we-can-afford-obamas-clean-energy-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"State of the Union Recap: We can Afford Obama\u2019s Clean Energy Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"President<\/a><\/p>\n

In his final State of the Union address last night, President Obama did not spend any time bragging about his signature environmental achievements, such as the Clean Power Plan<\/a> or the Paris climate accord<\/a>. Instead, he highlighted<\/a> the need for a more flexible electric grid in order to accelerate America\u2019s transition to a\u00a0clean energy economy, noting that, \u201cRather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some climate deniers and industry leaders alike are stuck in the past, and do not share Obama\u2019s enthusiasm for a clean energy future. They argue<\/a> that this path will cost too much and have a devastating impact on our economy.\u00a0We\u2019ve heard this argument before, and it doesn\u2019t hold true.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “State of the Union recap: We can afford Obama\u2019s clean energy legacy”]<\/p>\n

In a recent blog post<\/a> by my colleague, Graham McCann, expands on this further, showing how past major environmental programs \u2013 like the life-saving Mercury and Air Toxics Standards<\/a>, which are providing crucial reductions of toxic air pollutants including mercury, hydrochloric acid, and arsenic from our nation\u2019s power plants \u2013 have encountered similar overblown economic arguments from industry, and how industry has almost always been wrong. How do we know this?\u00a0 The numbers don\u2019t lie:<\/p>\n

\"Coming<\/a>Another way to look at this is argument is from the perspective of consumer spending. The U.S. Bureau of Commerce has collected data since 1959 showing what percentage of income consumers spend on electricity each year. This data shows<\/a> that electricity prices today are near an all-time low as a portion of consumers\u2019 budgets.<\/p>\n

Time and time again, the benefits of environmental protections have greatly surpassed the costs. For the Clean Air Act, benefits exceeded costs by 30 to 1. Technological improvements such as more efficient power plants and appliances, and electric grid improvements, have greatly reduced the projected compliance costs.<\/p>\n

The Clean Power Plan will actually save American families money \u2013 an average of $85 on annual energy bills by 2030, when it\u2019s fully implemented. And, of course, we have to consider the rising costs of the damage caused by climate change. A recent Citibank study<\/a> confirms that the comparative cost of transitioning to a clean energy economy is cheaper to implement than continuing down the self-destructive path of \u201cbusiness-as-usual.\u201d By transitioning to a clean energy economy we will save an estimated $1.8 trillion by 2040 \u2013 and we\u2019ll have a much cleaner, healthier planet to boot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his final State of the Union address last night, President Obama did not spend any time bragging about his signature environmental achievements, such as the Clean Power Plan or the Paris climate accord. Instead, he highlighted the need for a more flexible electric grid in order to accelerate America\u2019s transition to a\u00a0clean energy economy, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55725,439,53091,84830],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-12037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clean-power-plan","category-climate","category-energy-financing","category-grid-modernization"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nState of the Union Recap: We can Afford Obama\u2019s Clean Energy Legacy - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2016\/01\/13\/state-of-the-union-recap-we-can-afford-obamas-clean-energy-legacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"State of the Union Recap: We can Afford Obama\u2019s Clean Energy Legacy - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his final State of the Union address last night, President Obama did not spend any time bragging about his signature environmental achievements, such as the Clean Power Plan or the Paris climate accord. 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