Having it All: Economic Growth and Falling Emissions
New York Times: “Some critics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new requirements for power plants argue that forcing emissions reduction will curtail economic growth. But the recent experience of states that already cap carbon emissions reveals that emissions and economic growth are no longer tightly tied together.”
Nine states that participate in a cap-and-trade program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative “have substantially reduced their carbon emissions in recent years. At the same time, those states have had stronger economic growth than the rest of the country.”
“Since 2009, the nine states have cut their emissions by 18 percent, while their economies grew by 9.2 percent. By comparison, emissions in the other 41 states fell by 4 percent, while their economies grew by 8.8 percent.”