Statement from a Coalition of Free-Market State Think Tanks on the Affordable Clean Energy Rule

The Trump administration's finalized Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule is a major victory for America's middle class, many of whom work in energy intensive industries like manufacturing and mining. It also represents a boon to America's least fortunate for whom energy costs represent a significant part of their budget. All Americans would have been harmed by the Obama administration's legally flawed Clean Power Plan. It would have dramatically increased the cost of electricity and was predicted to reduce global warming by only 0.018 degrees Celsius by 2100, an amount far too small to be measured.

After Congress rejected proposed cap and trade legislation, the Obama administration crafted the Clean Power Plan to force states into regional cap and trade plans. President Trump's plan disallows such plans for compliance and focuses, instead, on improving the efficiencies of individual plants.

The Clean Power Plan claimed to seek a 32% reduction in CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 2030, at an estimated compliance cost of $9 billion. The US Chamber of Commerce estimated a more realistic $75 billion in compliance costs. The Rule was met with bipartisan opposition by 27 states who won a Supreme Court stay of the Rule in 2016.

The Clean Power Plan was also completely unnecessary. Thanks to the Trump administration's commonsense approach, emissions have fallen by 28% since 2017 and are forecast to be reduced 35% by 2030. At a compliance cost of $0.3 billion for the ACE rule, these gains were at 250 times less cost than the previous administration's alternative.

"This is great news. Hard working Colorado families can thank the Trump administration for making good on his pledge regarding the costly, controversial Clean Power Plan," added Amy Oliver Cooke, Executive Vice President of the Independence Institute. "Further, Colorado elected officials and special interest groups can no longer use the federal government as an excuse for our skyrocketing electric rates. Coloradans can now hold local elected officials solely accountable for our state's job-killing anti-energy policies that will continue to drive up the cost of living."

David T. Stevenson
Policy Director
Caesar Rodney Institute (Delaware)

Isaac Orr
Policy Fellow
Center of the American Experiment (Minnesota)

Gordon Tomb
Senior Fellow
Commonwealth Foundation (Pennsylvania)

Amy Oliver Cooke
Executive Vice President Independence Institute (Colorado)

Kory Swanson
President and CEO
John Locke Foundation (North Carolina)

Jason Hayes
Director of Environmental Policy
Mackinac Center for Public Policy (Michigan)

Brett Healy
President
The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy (Wisconsin)

Jameson Taylor, Ph.D.
Vice President for Policy Mississippi Center for Public Policy

Mike Stenhouse
CEO
Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity

Paul Gessing
President
Rio Grande Foundation (New Mexico)

Bette Grande
CEO, President
Roughrider Policy Center (North Dakota)