National Black Chamber of Commerce president Harry C. Alford on the Obama administration’s “Clean Power Plan”:
The Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and environmental activists frequently claim that climate change will disproportionately affect poor and minority communities.
This, they argue, justifies unprecedented environmental regulations like the EPA’s soon-to-be-finalized “Clean Power Plan” to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030.
But what effect will the regulation itself have on minority communities? A new study commissioned by my organization, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, answers this question.The Clean Power Plan will lead to lost jobs, lower incomes and higher poverty rates for the 128 million blacks and Hispanics living in America. This should serve as a warning to federal and state lawmakers as they prepare for this sweeping regulation to go into effect in the coming months.
….These factors — fewer jobs, lower incomes and higher costs of living — threaten to impoverish millions. The study estimates that the regulation will increase black and Hispanic poverty by 23% and 26%, respectively. We work hard to provide a better future for our children, yet this regulation only pushes the American dream even further out of reach.
The only good news? Alford says states can either sue the EPA or “refuse to implement the plan altogether.” Would love to see the reaction from our local paper of record should the evil Republicans in Raleigh pursue that course of action.
Last question —anybody get to vote on the “Clean Power Plan”?
