To conclude their week of calamity, the EPA did something that was actually very positive for the environment by releasing an economic report finding that proposed government action on climate change is entirely feasible. Which is of course why they did their best to bury it by releasing it late Friday afternoon.
The report looks at the economic impacts of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, and finds if we can get advanced energy technologies on the market quickly, the economy will grow 80 percent by 2030. The market is projected to grow 81 percent without a cap on carbon emissions, meaning a cap would cause just a 1 percent loss in growth. And that's without taking into account any possible losses in growth resulting from the impacts of climate change. It also doesn't take into account potential growth due to the creation of new jobs in the green sector, which the act proposes to invest in heavily. This is a significantly weaker bill than most scientists and environmental organizations say we need, but the findings are confirmation that action on climate change is possible.
Of course, there wasn't much promotion of these results, since the Bush administration still wants everyone to believe that action on climate change will inevitably cause economic collapse. Problem is, even their own horridly dysfunctional EPA knows it won't.
--Kate Sheppard
