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Rove Group Uses Flawed Study To Attack Udall On Carbon Plan
Senator Mark Udall (D-CO)
CREDIT: AP Photo/Susan Walsh
A Karl Rove-spawned political group is relying on a totally discredited analysis of new EPA coal plant regulations to attack Democratic Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) for his support of measures to cut carbon pollution. The $315,000 ad buy kicked off Monday in Denver, and opens up a new front in the drive by Republican House member Cory Gardner to unseat Udall.
The ad, from Crossroads GPS, a non-profit affiliate of the Rove’s super PAC American Crossroads, attacks Udall for supporting the new climate pollution regulations. It claims they will “hurt middle class families, drive up our electricity bills, and cost our region thousands of jobs.”
Rove’s source? In teensy-weensy print on the TV ad that is running in Denver, Rove cites a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study. That analysis of the likely economic costs of the regulations was issued prior to EPA’s publication of the regulations and assumed substantially more stringent carbon emissions than those actually proposed by the EPA.
The Chamber analysis was so flawed that the Washington Post’s fact checker gave it the maximum raspberry: Four Pinocchios.
Further, Dean Baker, an economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, has said “there’s literally nothing to support” the argument that poor people will suffer because of higher electric bills driven by the EPA regulations.
Given recent polls that show very strong public support for the rules that will cut carbon pollution, it’s a wonder why Rove and other GOP critics are even bothering to make political hay on the issue. A Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll released two weeks ago found, for example, that two-thirds of those surveyed support the new regulations and nearly three-fifths expressed support even if the rules raise their utility bills.
The post Rove Group Uses Flawed Study To Attack Udall On Carbon Plan appeared first on ThinkProgress.
Source: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/30/3454801/rove-flawed-chamber-study-udall/
