There is no doubt that climate change is a major issue in the world today. Study after study shows that over the past fifty years the world’s glaciers have been receding, sea levels rising, and temperatures increasing all over the world posing a threat to the entire planet. The issue in America, however, is how the U.S. should respond to these changes.
The government has implemented many plans to reduce the United States’ carbon footprint with the most recent being the Clean Power Plan under the Clean Air Act. The idea is that the act will cause power plants across the nation to reduce their emissions by shifting away from coal-fired power and move towards lower-emission energy. Like most regulations, it sounds like a great idea but when implemented in the real world it will cause energy costs to rise, leaving Americans with higher energy prices, strained economic growth, and negligible effects on global temperatures.
The Clean Power Plan is just one example of the increased environmental regulations that have been passed in the last ten years, yet hardly any change seems to be occurring. Climate change continues to be more and more of an issue, while the United States has lost over five million manufacturing jobs since the year 2000 and has gone ten years without reaching 3% annual growth in GDP.
The perfect solution to the United States’ manufacturing problem is not an easy answer and cannot solely be blamed on increased environmental regulation over the past couple decades. Many other factors are at play, however, there is no doubt that increased environmental regulation caused by the scare of climate change has greatly hindered manufacturing industries in the United States.