Heartland Institute Senior Fellow James Taylor delivered a powerful statement yesterday supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule during an EPA hearing in Chicago. Taylor praised President Donald Trump for keeping a campaign promise to replace the Obama administration’s expensive and ineffectual Clean Power Plan.
“President Trump campaigned on repealing the Clean Power Plan and replacing it with something better. The American people elected him to do just that. Today we are celebrating a promise kept,” said Taylor.
Taylor noted that scientific evidence reveals global warming skeptics/realists are much closer to the truth than alarmists. Accordingly, there is no justification for the carbon dioxide restrictions of the Clean Power Plan.
“The wonderful truth is there is no need or justification for the economy-killing Clean Power Plan. The scientific evidence gets stronger every day that global warming alarmism is a failed theory,” said Taylor.
Taylor presented evidence that more atmospheric carbon dioxide is stimulating a greening of the Earth and contributing to record agricultural yields. Taylor also presented data that there has been no increase in the frequency or severity of extreme weather events— just the frequency and severity of media coverage of such events.
Furthermore, Taylor revealed peer-reviewed studies that colder than optimal temperatures lead to more than 10 times as many human deaths as warmer than optimal temperatures. Accordingly, global warming is likely saving tens of thousands of lives, at a bare minimum, every year.
The economic benefits of the ACE Rule will also benefit human health and longevity, Taylor observed.
“The ACE Rule will save American consumers $400 million per year, which will enable people to purchase better housing, nutrition, education, and health care. This makes life more enjoyable and saves human lives. It is shocking that environmental extremists vilify and hate the very entity, coal power, which drives the economic engine that provides all these life-saving and life-enhancing benefits. But the American people understand. President Trump campaigned on a pledge to end the war on coal. The American people voted, and they voted for coal power and higher living standards.”
Taylor also countered false claims that repealing the Clean Power Plan’s carbon dioxide restrictions will cause an increase in health ailments and deaths.
“The ACE Rule addresses carbon dioxide, a clear, odorless gas that does not cause asthma or any other health problems that have been claimed here today,” said Taylor.
