Thursday, July 3, 2014

Dueling Models

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce put out a report Wednesday that says the EPA's coming proposal to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants  will eventually kill 224,000 jobs and cause $50 billion in economic losses a year.

The Natural Resources Defense Council will produce its own report taking the opposite view. It will say the administration's rule will create thousands of new green jobs, save consumers billions on utility bills and of course decrease pollution.

The EPA has a third opinion. "The EPA projects that, in 2030, the significant reductions in the harmful carbon pollution and in other air pollution, to which this rule would lead, would result in net climate and health benefits of $48 billion to $82 billion,” the agency proposal says.

Where any of these numbers come from--especially the health benefits translated into dollars--is not explained. But I'm sure in each of these departments the models and the numbers they generated were reached by consensus.

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