Monday, April 19, 2010

AFFORDABLE POWER ALLIANCE CALLS ON SOUTH CAROLINA'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO FIGHT AGAINST THE PROPOSED EPA CARBON TAXES

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Leaders from African-American, Hispanic and senior citizen groups are blasting the appearance in South Carolina this week of officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because of the agency's plans to impose a new carbon tax that will disproportionately hurt the state's low-income families and working poor.

"These federal bureaucrats are coming to South Carolina to talk about 'environmental justice' when in fact they are peddling a brand of environmental injustice," said Niger Innis, National Spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality and co-chair of the Affordable Power Alliance. "If these Washington politicians get their way, people all across South Carolina are going to pay more to heat and cool their homes, pay more for gasoline, pay more for groceries, pay more for medicine, pay more for all of the necessities of life."

"South Carolina had better batten down the hatches, because the EPA carbon tax hurricane is about to hit," Innis said.

"I'm appalled that these Washington politicians are trying to sell these policies as good for South Carolina, when just the opposite is true," he continued. "The cold, hard truth is that the EPA is waging a veritable war on the poor by pushing its huge new carbon tax on energy production and manufacturing and agriculture."

"The EPA's policies are the very definition of environmental injustice," Innis added.

As evidence that EPA regulations would have disproportionate impact on the poor, Innis cited a study released recently in Washington, D.C. that found the carbon tax regulations the EPA is hoping to impose on America would have these specific impacts:

- Increase the poverty rate for African Americans by 2025 from 24% to ~30%, an increase of 20%.

- Increase the poverty rate for Hispanics by 2025 from 23% to 28%, an increase of nearly 22%.

- Decrease by 2015 African American median household income(MHI) by $550 and decrease Hispanic MHI by $630.

- Decrease by 2025 African American median household income by nearly $600 and decrease Hispanic MHI by $660.

- Decrease by 2035 African American median household income by $700 and decrease Hispanic MHI by $820.

- Lead to a cumulative loss of $13,0000 in African American median household income from 2012–2035.

- Lead to a cumulative loss of $15,000+ in Hispanic median household income from 2012–2035.

- Loss of jobs by African Americans: 180,000 by 2015; 300,000 by 2025; and 390,000 by 2030.

- Loss of jobs by Hispanics: 250,000 by 2015; 400,000 by 2025; and 500,000 by 2030.

- Cumulative job losses by African Americans: 1.7 million by 2015 and 4.9 million by 2030.

- Cumulative job losses by Hispanics: 2.4 million by 2015 and 6.5 million by 2030.

- Increase the energy burden by 2020 for African Americans by 14% and Hispanics by 16%.

- Increase the energy burden by 2030 for African Americans by nearly 33% and 35% for Hispanics.

Innis urged Members of Congress representing South Carolina to publicly repudiate the EPA planned carbon tax.

"South Carolina's elected representatives should stand in unison against the economic snake oil that the EPA is selling," Innis said. He added that Rep. Jim Clyburn, who is a member of the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, "has been a strong advocate for getting more baseload power built in America from clean coal, nuclear and natural gas."

"I think Jim Clyburn understands that more energy from all sources means lower prices and a higher standard of living for South Carolina, and that higher energy taxes from the EPA are going to hit minorities the hardest," Innis said, noting that opposition to the EPA's carbon tax is building among Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C.

"The Affordable Power Alliance calls upon all of South Carolina's Congressional delegation to join in this growing wave of opposition to the EPA carbon tax," he said.

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