EPA’s Climate Change Plan Could Save States Money on Energy Bills

States could end up saving money on their energy bills under the Obama Administration’s proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, according to a new report.

The report, published Thursday by energy research firm Synapse Energy Economics, looked at a future scenario in which states comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce emissions from power plants 25 percent from 2005 levels by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030.  In the scenario, states meet or exceed their targets for the Clean Power Plan, and the U.S. as a whole ends up exceeding the goals of the regulation — achieving 58 percent reduction in emissions compared to 2005 levels by 2030.  The report’s authors say they modeled the scenario in this way because they wanted to look at the “intent” of the Clean Power Plan instead of the proposed goals, which could change once the rule is finalized.

“Our Clean Energy Future scenario represents a substantial shift towards renewable generation as the costs of these technologies continue to decline and incentives are put in place to encourage adoption,” the authors write.

The report compares this scenario to a reference scenario, in which no new renewable energy or efficiency policies are adopted in states.  It found that, in the Clean Energy Future scenario, energy bills in 2030 would be $35 per month lower than in the reference scenario.  That’s $14 per month cheaper than household energy bills were in 2012.  The Hill points out that this finding also portends higher savings than the $8 per month in savings that the EPA predicts will come from the climate rule.

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