House Oversight Subcommittee Holds Climate Policy Hearing

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On September 24, 2020, the House Oversight Subcommittee on Environment held a hearing titled “Climate Change Part IV: Moving Towards a Sustainable Future.” The written statements of the four majority witnesses are posted on the Subcommittee’s website but not the written statement of Heritage Foundation statistician and data scientist Dr. Kevin Dayaratna. I am posting it here.

Dr. Dayaratna’s submitted testimony provides a detailed and fully documented overview of the groundbreaking work he and his colleagues have done over many years on climate change policy, especially the garbage-in-garbage-out problems of social cost of carbon analysis, the harmful economic impacts of carbon taxes and regulatory climate policies, and the enormous economic benefits of market-driven energy development.

His written statement concludes:

Policies aimed at “decarbonizing” the American economy are predicated on faulty models that are prone to user-selected manipulation. These policies will raise the cost of energy, thus resulting in devastating economic impacts. On the other hand, policies that are aimed at taking advantage of the American oil and gas supply have tremendous potential to grow the economy. And, moreover, either policy—regulatory or deregulatory—will have negligible impact on the climate.

You can watch the hearing on YouTube. Dr. Dayaratna’s oral presentation begins at 37:50.