Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said acting on climate change is a financial imperative in a Thursday speech, hitting back at critics who say Obama administration environmental policies will damage the economy.
“The economy isn’t a reason to fear action. It’s a reason to take action,” McCarthy said at a Washington event hosted by think tank Resources for the Future.
McCarthy made allusions to past innovation in the United States, such as measures to reduce pollutants that were destroying the ozone layer and NASA space missions, to support her claims that regulations to ratchet down greenhouse gas emissions could be a positive, disruptive force.
Front and center is the EPA’s proposed carbon limits for power plants, which aim to slash those emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
The Obama administration has been trying to make the case that acting on climate is good for the economy. The EPA estimates its proposed power plant rule would yield benefits of up to $93 billion in 2030, at an $8.8 billon cost to implement the rule.
But detractors say it will raise energy costs that handicap the economy against competitors, and that U.S. action alone cannot do enough to address climate change.
“Administrator McCarthy must be wishing on a star to compare President Kennedy’s space mission, which had real-world benefits, to President Obama’s climate plan, that will hurt the U.S. economy, cost Americans jobs and do virtually nothing to impact climate change in any meaningful way,” said Laura Sheehan, senior vice president for communications at industry group the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
The rule’s supporters say it will help slow climate change and provide health benefits by shuttering older, dirtier power plants. McCarthy pointed to commitments made by businesses to cut emissions as recently as this week to underscore the administration’s belief that climate action makes economic sense.
“As seas rise, so do insurance premiums, medical bills and food prices. From water scarcity to wilting crops, companies like General Mills and Coca-Cola see climate change as a threat to commerce,” McCarthy said. “Paying more for soda and cereal means less cash to buy other things. That chokes economies and stunts job growth.”
President Obama has touted the proposal, scheduled for finalization in June 2015, as a way to compel other nations to enact similar measures. At Tuesday’s United Nations climate summit, Obama said “nobody gets a pass” when nations sit down next year in Paris to hammer out a global climate treaty.
McCarthy said Obama’s speech at the summit was “clearly the hot topic” at an event she said was “clearly a positive moment.”
Still, leveraging U.S. domestic policies into political capital internationally has its challenges. India’s environment minister, for example, said Wednesday that his nation’s emissions would rise and that it would not offer a plan for cutting them ahead of the talks.
But McCarthy said the White House would keep pushing against domestic opponents who want to block climate regulations and for other nations to match U.S. efforts.
“Those same critics point fingers at other nations dragging their feet as an excuse for the United States to stand still. We don’t hide behind the inaction of other nations as an excuse for mediocrity,” McCarthy said.
