Report: Colorado households would pay $390K to comply with “Green New Deal”

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Lassman
CEI President Kent Lassman

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The so-called “Green New Deal” championed by socialist U.S. Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) would cost the typical Colorado household nearly $390,000 over the next eight years.

That’s according to an analysis by think tanks Power the Future and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

The analysis explores and estimates the cost to consumers of following the Green New Deal’s “radical blueprint to decarbonize the American economy,” the report says.

Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal’s 98 co-sponsors in the U.S. House-- including one Colorado member, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Boulder)-- would ban emissions from energy production or usage by 2050. That would effectively bar the burning of wood, coal, natural gas or oil for energy, mandate the replacement of automobile and air travel with high-speed rail and require new or retrofitted “green” housing units for most Americans.

“The Green New Deal is a politically motivated policy that will saddle households with exorbitant costs and wreck our economy,” said CEI President Kent Lassman. “Perhaps that’s why exactly zero Senate Democrats, including Senator Michael Bennet, voted for the Green New Deal when they had the chance.”

Last March, the U.S. Senate voted down a resolution backing Ocasio-Cortez’ Green New Deal by a vote of 57-0

In Colorado, the new study estimates this would cost each household $74,287 the first year the Green New Deal is implemented and a total of $389,559 per Colorado household over its first eight years.

All told, Colorado taxpayers would pay $161.9 billion to implement the Green New Deal in its first year and $849.2 billion over an eight year period, according to the report.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, two percent of Colorado energy consumption is currently derived from renewable sources. Nearly seven in ten Colorado homes-- or approximately 1.5 million households-- use natural gas for heating and cooking, according to a 2017 U.S. Census report.

"We have nearly a century's worth of natural gas that can power our economy. The idea that we are going to ban the most reliable, abundant, clean, and low-cost energy source in this country is absurd,” said Jim Nathanson, executive director of The Empowerment Alliance, national advocacy group whose mission is to secure U.S. energy independence utilizing natural gas.  “Only someone who has never had to pay their own utility bills or manage a household budget would think this is a good idea.” 

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