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Re: “EPA’s rule on carbon emissions will hurt Colorado,” July 27 guest commentary.
Opponents of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan are starting to sound a bit redundant. Their argument, laid out by Stuart Sanderson, president of the Colorado Mdining Association, is that the plan will raise electricity costs. Unsurprisingly, the only people really speaking up on this side of the issue are in the coal industry. Despite their claims, even environmentalists don’t like higher electricity bills. And environmentalists don’t hate jobs, either. Itap simply that they’ve realized that the cost-benefit analysis laid out by opponents of the Clean Power Plan includes only immediate costs and benefits, especially as they apply to the coal industry.
Supporters of the Clean Power Plan understand that the long-term costs of climate change far outweigh economic costs it will have in the next few years.
The negative health effects of carbon pollution and smog, dangerous extreme weather events, and damage to ecosystems will ultimately prove to be much more expensive to our country than cleaning up dirty coal-fired power plants today. Yes, the coal industry will take a hit if the rule passes, but the future of our planet will take an even harder hit if it doesn’t.
Ellen Plane, Denver
This letter was published in the July 31 edition.
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