ACES Climate Bill Can Help Cash Strapped Americans Save Money

There's a lot of talk about the costs of the proposed climate bill for American consumers. As we've documented repeatedly, opponents of climate policy have cranked out lots of "studies" to prove the bill will crater the economy.

The latest garbage to come out of the opposition team was the map that suddenly popped up last week, purporting to show that the American Clean Energy and Security Act would rob states of large sums of cash. Kate Sheppard of Grist traced it back to the National Mining Association in a terrific piece.

While the NMA map was a good visual, it wasn't a good actual. As in, actual representation of the bill it purports to represent. As Kate notes, the analysis on which it was based didn't actually model the bill. Which as I've noted before is a tried and true way to show catastrophic effects for climate legislation.

The Climate Bill Cuts Electricity Bills

Well, NRDC did model the actual bill. And its actual provisions. And we find that Americans in nearly every state will save on their monthly electricity bill under the American Clean Energy and Security Act. With its energy-efficiency and consumer protection provisions, H.R. 2454 creates modest savings for most consumers. Even in the few states where savings compared to business-as-usual are not projected, bills still will be lower under H.R. 2454 than they were in 2007.

For detailed methodology and explanations, download the pdf.

Update: NRDC's findings are broadly consistent with both the EPA and Congressional Budget Office analyses of the bill, both of which project costs of less than $0.50 per for the average American household, as my colleague Dan Lashof explains.