--- title: Could Obama’s Clean Power Plan Lower Your Electric Bill? description: Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology say that the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan will lower electricity bills. canonical: https://time.com/3986383/clean-power-plan-costs/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-07T19:29:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:17.196Z article:section: Politics og:title: Could Obama’s Clean Power Plan Lower Your Electric Bill? og:description: A new study says yes. og:url: https://time.com/3986383/clean-power-plan-costs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8526387ba9fd6919/69885e6735ba6f1eb6c0e8ee/solar-panels-clean-power-plan.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Dave Scarantino, senior installer for SolarCity Corp, installs solar panels on the rooftop of a home in Kendall Park, N.J., U.S., on Tuesday, July 28, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Could Obama’s Clean Power Plan Lower Your Electric Bill? twitter:description: A new study says yes. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8526387ba9fd6919/69885e6735ba6f1eb6c0e8ee/solar-panels-clean-power-plan.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Could Obama’s Clean Power Plan Lower Your Electric Bill? > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Know Right Now: Obama Mandates Greenhouse Gas Cuts [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Obama Mandates Greenhouse Gas Cuts](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wKNpAEnx.m3u8) (1:01)  _Published 2015-08-03. President Obama is ordering steep greenhouse gas cuts from U.S. power plants. The effort is a response to the 4 million public comments received by the Environmental Protection Agency._ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 7, 2015 7:29 PM UTC  Dave Scarantino, senior installer for SolarCity Corp, installs solar panels on the rooftop of a home in Kendall Park, N.J., U.S., on Tuesday, July 28, 2014. Dave Scarantino, senior installer for SolarCity Corp, installs solar panels on the rooftop of a home in Kendall Park, N.J., U.S., on Tuesday, July 28, 2014.Michael Nagle—© 2015 Bloomberg Finance LP by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 7, 2015 7:29 PM UTC Critics of President Obama’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. energy sector have asserted for more than a year that the plan will do more harm than good, costing homeowners and businesses by slashing jobs and driving up prices. But researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have concluded that the Clean Power Plan will actually lower electricity bills. In a report released last week, public policy professor Marilyn Brown found that boosting renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power would reduce energy costs in the long run as they become more readily available. Even if energy costs did go up in the short run, she argued that would cause consumers to invest more in things like energy-efficient appliances, which would again lead to lower electricity bills over time. “The idea that customer electricity bills may actually go down may seem counterintuitive to some, but it’s a natural outcome of making smart investments in energy efficiency — better heating and cooling equipment, programmable thermostats, appliances, replacing incandescent bulbs, using cogeneration, as well as insulation and windows,” said Brown in an email to TIME. “These investments can all produce lower electricity bills.” Not everyone buys that analysis, however. Nicolas Loris, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said that there’s nothing stopping consumers from buying energy-efficient appliances now, so that can’t be a reason for arguing the plan would reduce costs. “Families and businesses already have the option to buy more energy efficient goods,” he said. “This logic is like a business telling an employee they’re getting a pay cut but to save money they can shop at Target. The option to shop at Target exists without the pay cut.” But Brown says that people need to take the long view of the energy market. “As energy is used more efficiently, non-competitive power plants can be retired, construction of new coal plants can be deferred and transmission and distribution line upgrades can be delayed,” says Brown. “All of which would lower rates and further lower the energy bills of Americans.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3986383/clean-power-plan-costs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3986383/clean-power-plan-costs/"},"headline":"Could Obama’s Clean Power Plan Lower Your Electric Bill?","datePublished":"2015-08-07T19:29:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:17.196Z","description":"Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology say that the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan will lower electricity bills.","url":"https://time.com/3986383/clean-power-plan-costs/","keywords":["Environment","Barack Obama","coal","White House","energy","President"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8526387ba9fd6919/69885e6735ba6f1eb6c0e8ee/solar-panels-clean-power-plan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8526387ba9fd6919/69885e6735ba6f1eb6c0e8ee/solar-panels-clean-power-plan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dave Scarantino, senior installer for SolarCity Corp, installs solar panels on the rooftop of a home in Kendall Park, N.J., U.S., on Tuesday, July 28, 2014.","caption":"Dave Scarantino, senior installer for SolarCity Corp, installs solar panels on the rooftop of a home in Kendall Park, N.J., U.S., on Tuesday, July 28, 2014.","creditText":"Michael Nagle—© 2015 Bloomberg Finance LP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3986383/clean-power-plan-costs/","name":"Could Obama’s Clean Power Plan Lower Your Electric Bill?"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: Obama Mandates Greenhouse Gas Cuts","description":"President Obama is ordering steep greenhouse gas cuts from U.S. power plants. 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