American households in eleven key states could expect more than $70,000 in higher costs if the Green New Deal is implemented, according to a new study released today by Power the Future, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL).

The eleven states analyzed in the study are Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The analysis, co-authored by Power the Future Founder and Executive Director Daniel Turner and CEI President and CEO Kent Lassman, finds the average household in eleven model states will be on the hook for more than $70,000 in increased costs for electricity, upgrading vehicles and housing, and shipping in just the first year under the Green New Deal. Those initial costs would be slightly lower in subsequent years, but households in those states could expect tens of thousands of dollars in higher annual costs going forward. (See table below.)

This study builds on an earlier study released by Power the Future and CEI in July 2019 that analyzed the potential cost of the Green New Deal for electricity, vehicle and housing upgrades, and shipping in five states: Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. The new study released today uses data from 2019 that was not available last year to update the numbers in those five states and extends the methodology to six new states: Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Sum of Household Costs

An addendum by Will Flanders of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty finds the estimated costs to the agricultural industry just in the state of Wisconsin would decrease crop yields and raise costs in ways that would devastate the state’s dairy sector. Flanders finds the Green New Deal will cost Wisconsin farmers more than $200 billion annually in decreased production and $2.5 billion per year to reduce cattle emissions.

“The Green New Deal is a politically motivated policy that will saddle households with exorbitant costs and wreck our economy. Our analysis shows that, if implemented, the Green New Deal would cost for American households at least tens of thousands of dollars annually on a permanent basis,” said CEI President Kent Lassman. “Perhaps that’s why exactly zero Senate Democrats, including the resolution’s 12 co-sponsors, voted for the Green New Deal when they had the chance.”

“The Green New Deal would effectively destroy America’s energy industry, and with it, our entire economy,” said Daniel Turner, Executive Director of Power the Future. “Right now, our booming national economy and record low unemployment rate is driven by abundant, domestic, reliable, and inexpensive energy produced by millions of men and women across the country. Any policy that proposes to reverse this success is a threat to jobs, to rural communities, to national security, and to the very prosperity that Americans are experiencing.”

“While the Green New Deal may play well with coastal elites, in Midwestern states like Wisconsin, families, businesses, and farms depend on affordable, reliable energy,” said WILL research director Will Flanders. “The Green New Deal would eliminate that, driving middle class families into poverty by imposing staggering annual costs of more than $40,000 per household.”

The cost estimates, based on available data and analysis, are low-end approximations, given the Green New Deal’s unprecedented scope. Most its provisions are so broad and open-ended that the list of programs to implement it is only limited by legislators’ imagination—a situation that makes a full calculation of the costs impossible.

You can see the entire study, including methodology, here.

About:

Power the Future is a 501(c)4 non-profit organization with the mission of offering truth, facts, and research that will enrich the national conversation on energy. Power the Future disseminates research, shares facts and truths, and engages at the local level and with the media.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individual liberty. CEI pursues a full-service approach to advancing public policy, including: publishing original research; executing advocacy campaigns to reach policy makers, influential opinion leaders, and grassroots activists; building coalitions to advance issues at the state, national, and international levels; and challenging the constitutionality of dubious statutes, interstate agreements, and onerous regulations through litigation.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty is a law and policy center, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. WILL engages in policy analysis, public interest litigation, and advocacy in support of limited government, individual liberty, the rule of law, and a robust civil society.