Josh Earnest: Climate Regs Create Benefits ‘Four or Five Times’ Greater than Cost

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

TAPPER: “Josh, the supreme court just whacked the Obama administration for not factoring in the costs of these measures on business expenses, when it comes to environmental regulation. Was that part of the decision-making process at all here?”

EARNEST: “Yeah, and Jake, again, what the analysis showed is there would be costs that would be incurred by private industry, as they begin to make some of these difficult changes.”

TAPPER: “You don't think they'll be passed on to consumers.”

EARNEST: “We found the public benefits are actually four or five times the cost that would be paid by these individual utilities, both in the form of public health benefits that, if we can make additional gains in terms of cleaning up our air, we'll see significantly fewer cases of asthma, and significantly fewer asthma attacks. Investments in clean energy, which is already a trend we're starting toss will be redoubled, turbocharged by these rules, because utilities will have to make investments in renewable energy, solar energy, hike roe power centering. As you make -- as you make investments in this kind of new technology, the cost of generating power through this new technology actually becomes reduced and would not over the long term less.”