Originally published in Market Watch
“What I like about today’s proposal is its inclusion of a time-bound target for the emissions goal. That is useful,” said Charles Hernick, vice president of policy and advocacy at Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum.”
“The challenge, though, is that the proposal by the majority calls for a heavy hand by federal government that focuses on increasing costs and decreasing consumer options… [M]andating new sales of electric vehicles or certain types of electricity generation will crowd out innovation and cost reductions,” Hernick said, adding that he and others felt that Tuesday’s release got away from bipartisan progress on other proposals, including the Senate’s Growing Climate Solutions Act. Republicans also sit on the Cantor-led special climate committee and said they would issue their own detailed response to the report in the near future.
“We can reduce emissions in the U.S. at a high cost to Americans. But can we export those solutions?” Hernick continued. “Until Latin America, Africa, and especially China, can adopt these solutions, we haven’t accomplished the goal.”