Study: Green New Deal Would Cost Households in Five States More than $70K in First Year of Implementation

August 5, 2019

WASHINGTON, DC – American households can expect tens of thousands of dollars in higher costs for energy, housing, transportation, and shipping if the Green New Deal is implemented, according to a new study released today by Power the Future and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

The joint study, co-authored by Power the Future Founder and Executive Director Daniel Turner and CEI President and CEO Kent Lassman, finds each household in five model states – Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania – 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.

Alaska households would see an additional $100,000 in costs in the first year alone, due to the remoteness of the state and its dependence on fossil fuels. Those initial costs would be slightly lower in subsequent years, but households in the five model states should expect tens of thousands of dollars in higher annual costs going forward, if the Green New Deal is implemented. (See table below.)

“The Green New Deal is a radical blueprint to de-carbonize the American economy by refashioning how we grow food, move people and goods, source and distribute electricity, and build the structures where we live, work, and play. 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 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.”

“Economists and experts have been warning us for months about the devastating effects of the Green New Deal, and now we have the numbers to prove it,” said Daniel Turner, Executive Director of Power the Future. “This study only calculates a fraction of the cost of Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez’s radical plan, which amounts to a socialist free-for-all with no regard for the American taxpayer. No family should be forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars in the first year alone to fund AOC’s ideological wish list. Thankfully, Americans see through the Green New Deal and are beginning to fight back.”

The cost estimates are based on available data and analysis. Most provisions of the Green New Deal are so broad and open-ended, the list of potential programs necessary to implement the resolution are limited only by the imagination of legislators, making a full calculation of the costs impossible. The estimates are low-end approximations, given the unprecedented scope of the proposal.

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.