Energy Costs, Global Warming Lawsuits, and Unemployment

Energy Costs

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter is aggressively pushing his “New Energy Economy” agenda.

Policy Analyst William Yeatman argues that the “New Energy Economy” will cost Colorado residents a lot more than Ritter claims.

“The crown jewel of Ritter’s much-ballyhooed plan is the renewable electricity standard (RES), which requires investor-owned utilities to generate at least 30 percent of their electricity sales from renewable energy sources by 2020. Critics warned that a 30 percent RES will saddle energy consumers with higher costs, and the facts seem to be on their side. According to the federal Energy Information Administration’s projection of future electricity costs, in 2016 wind power will be nearly 50 percent more expensive than coal and nearly 80 percent more expensive than natural gas.”

Global Warming Lawsuits

The Obama administration filed a brief with the Supreme Court last week asking the court to vacate the appeals’ court’s decision in Connecticut v. American Electric Power. That decision would allow individuals to sue companies for “global-warming-related injuries.”

According to Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis, the Administration’s brief does not go far enough.

“The brief stops short of reaching the obvious conclusion implied by its argument, namely, that climate policy is a ‘non-justiciable political question.’ Instead, it advises the Supreme Court to direct the court of appeals to reassess its decision on ‘prudential’ grounds. Rather than seek a decision that would preempt all future CO2 litigation, the brief instead seeks to put one particular CO2 lawsuit on ice. I smell a rat. The Administration, I suspect, does not want the Court to rule that the political question doctrine precludes public nuisance litigation against CO2-emitters, because it wants the only solid, durable shield against litigation chaos to be the EPA’s ‘displacement’ of common-law injury claims via the agency’s endangerment rule and the ensuing regulatory cascade.”

Unemployment

The unemployment rate has risen again.

Senior Counsel Hans Bader says the the stimulus package is partially responsible for the rise in unemployment.

“The $800 billion stimulus package is shipping American jobs overseas. More than 79 percent of ‘green jobs’ funding under the stimulus package went to foreign firms. Meanwhile, to pay for the stimulus package, the government borrowed a huge amount of money from the American people, money that would otherwise have been spent on American products, or been invested in America’s companies. The stimulus package has also destroyed thousands of jobs in America’s export sector by triggering trade wars that America lost. It also subsidized countless examples of government waste.”