By Randy Harrison
Indiana saw a major victory under the Donald Trump administration recently. On March 28, President Trump ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to halt the Clean Power Plan, the CPP.
President Barack Obama promised to significantly increase America’s energy bill as a candidate. His executive order to implement the CPP fulfilled his promise and more. In Indiana, it closed mines, stopped jobs and increased your electric bill. All in the name of saving our environment.
Like many things in Washington, the CPP was not really about the environment or global emissions. That was a ruse to manipulate an uninformed public. The CPP was a back-door regulatory maneuver to get cap-and-trade in place, another liberal overreach. It’s important to recall that cap-and-trade was shot down in Congress, and per media reports, even Democrats counseled Obama to let the issue die as their constituents were not in favor of the legislation.
While EPA marketed the CPP as a regulation that would save the world from carbon-dioxide “pollution,” of which there is no such thing, the costly regulation would have at best reduced sea levels to the thickness of three sheets of paper, and global temperatures to less than .02 degrees Fahrenheit.
Even green extremists lamented after the Paris Accord that the regulation did almost nothing for global warming.
Any reasonable person could see that the cost of the CPP outweighed the benefits. And it gave the EPA deep state heavy-handed powers over the states.
In short, the CPP was a disaster in the making for Indiana and America’s economy. Our electric supply would be based on even more volatile commodity prices.
Some electric plants already have converted to natural gas. Jobs have already been lost and coal mines closed here at home. Fortunately, reasonable people have entered the White House.
Let’s be clear. We all want quality air and clean water — but the CPP wasn’t going to get us there.
Now we can refocus for the future, one where innovation can drive cleaner coal technology, and we can dismiss the costly and politically motivated regulations that do nothing to help our nation.
Make no mistake, the CPP would inflict a disproportionate financial burden upon the poor. While wealthy people just pay the extra cost, the poor have their energy turned off because they can’t pay the bill. It’s too much considering that we have plenty of coal. According to the Indiana Geological Survey, Indiana has enough proven coal reserves to last 500 years.
Mark this down as a win for Indiana.
Randy Harrison is a retired pastor who lives in Fortville; he can be reached at federalistno57 @aol.com.
