Appeals court decision on clean power plan will affect businesses

Later this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear a case on the legality of the Clean Power Plan, the single most significant climate change policy we have.

There are legal issues at stake here; for example, whether the Obama administration acted within its authority by using executive action, or whether the Clean Air Act gives the EPA the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (a power the Supreme Court has already said it has). Those are important issues, and we expect the Circuit Court to look closely at them.

{mosads}But the rule faces another kind of counterargument: the idea that the Clean Power Plan, or any climate-related action, will hurt the economy.

This is not true. It never has been true, and increasing numbers of business leaders are realizing is that the opposite is true: that the longer we wait to act on climate change, the worse off we all will be.

Our organizations, the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) and the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. along with two dozen other business organizations across the country, released an amicus brief (PDF) earlier this year noting the myriad economic benefits that policies like the Clean Power Plan can create. On this, the evidence is clear: we can shift our energy mix away from fossil fuels and also help businesses and the economy grow.

In fact, the pair go hand in hand.

As our brief to the court noted, employment in the solar industry rose 123% from 2010 to 2015, giving us over 115,000 new living-wage jobs — many of them in rural communities, and predominantly local. After all, coal and oil may have to be transported from one state to another, but the sun or wind don’t have that issue.

Renewable energy costs are stable and do not spike when the air temperature is very hot or very cold. This means more predictability for businesses, letting them make smarter decisions about how or whether to invest.

What’s more, we’ve already seen how states can work together to tackle climate change. Take the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI — a collaboration of northeastern states setting up a cap-and-trade system to lower emissions.

The brief covered that, too: From 2009 to 2011, its first three years of operation, RGGI produced $1.6 billion in economic value and led to over 16,000 additional jobs. For the three years after that, RGGI added an additional $1.3 billion in economic value and 14,200 more jobs.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. Take it from small business owners –Republicans, Democrats, and Independents — who worry about how climate change will affect them. According to national, scientific polling conducted by ASBC, nearly one in five business owners say severe weather events caused by climate change have already harmed their businesses.

So when you hear someone stand up before the DC Circuit Court and say that the Clean Power Plan is harmful to business, keep in mind that the opposite is true. Remember that numerous business owners do know what’s at stake if we don’t act on climate change.

Then, whether the Clean Power Plan survives its court challenges or not, plan to keep on talking about it. The real voice of aware business owners may be what it takes to get policymakers to finally take useful action against this very real threat.

David Levine is CEO of the American Sustainable Business Council, which represents the policy interests of over 200,000 responsible businesses across the country.