Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court took the unprecedented step of issuing a stay temporarily halting the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). This means legal challenges that have already been filed against the rule won’t require states to spend time and money to implement a rule that will likely be thrown out.
This is welcome news, and not just for the states and state agencies that joined us in the petition to stay the rule. In the long run, it’s also potentially very good news for American families.
Considerable study and analysis has been done on the economic impacts associated with the implementation of the administration’s power plan, and the conclusions are overwhelmingly negative. The most direct and harmful impact is skyrocketing electricity costs.
In fact, according to recent analysis on the impact of energy costs on American households in 32 states, we know that families will face a 15 percent average increase and a peak-year increases of 19 percent. This is especially harmful to the 37 million lower- and middle-income families in those same states that on average bring home less than $24,000 a year and spend 17 percent of that limited budget on energy costs. Sadly, the EPA didn’t factor in these families when drafting its illegal rule.
Thankfully, now that the power plan has been stayed, states can take a much needed step back and focus their limited resources not on advancing an illegal plan but instead on their constituents’ real concerns – jobs, education and healthcare.