A new paper from Dr. Susan Tierney at the Analysis Group confirms that Americans do not have to choose between clean air, a liveable climate, and reliable electricity.

The coal industry has been lobbying intensely against new clean air standards and regulations for carbon dioxide emissions. There are two important takeaways from the report that debunk the coal lobby’s arguments against EPA regulations:

1. Despite coal plant closures, PJM (the largest grid operator in the country) actually exceeded its targeted reserve margin — capacity above peak levels — following its annual auction.

2.Wholesale electricity rates have decreased in since 2009 and are projected to drop 10 percent from 2011 levels by 2015.

The people who operate our grid are doing it reliably and with less coal. Last week, the Energy Information Administration found that coal’s share of electricity generation had dropped from 44.6 percent in Q1 of 2011 to 36 percent in Q1 of 2012. Yet the lights stayed on.

Why It Matters

There are two things consumers want from a utility: to turn on the lights cheaply and to do it without harming public health or the environment.

The idea that we can’t have both is a fallacy. Proponents of coal have conducted a very aggressive (albeit, incorrect) messaging campaign that goes something like this:

1. Coal is cheap

2. Cheap coal makes cheap electricity

3. Therefore, reducing reliance on cheap coal means more expensive and/or less reliable electricity

This argument has come up repeatedly as a reason to reject EPA air quality regulations to limit coal pollution, including the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS) and the Carbon Pollution Rule. Now, most folks believe that these regulations are important — even if they do lead to slightly higher costs, since public health is a serious concern.

But we don’t have to choose between higher costs and less pollution, as Dr. Tierney explains.

Tierney looks at recent results from PJM’s capacity auction to see the impact of coal plant closures. PJM holds an annual auction where it “procure[s] resources needed to guarantee reliability three years into the future.” These auctions allow companies to competitively bid into the market to secure contracts for future generation.

For coal plants affected by regulation, this will theoretically make their operating costs higher and impact their ability to bid. Other resources like nuclear, renewables, and natural gas would then have the opportunity to step up their market share if they can provide a better deal and reliable delivery. In the auction process, PJM shoots to have 15 percent reserve margin, which is the ability to deliver power over peak demand.

If the coal lobby’s argument against regulation were correct, one of two things should have happened: Either electricity should be more expensive, or it should be less reliable to deliver.

But neither of those scenarios came to be. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: electricity prices based on contracts secured at the auction will actually be 10 percent below 2011 prices, and PJM overshot its capacity margin by 5 percent.

Once again, the scare tactics from the coal industry and its allies have been proven false.

This post was originally published by Climate Progress.

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Before anyone who is currently in college says that’s the last straw and they’re just going to work more hours in their part-time job at the mall, put college on hold possibly forever and stop worrying about how to pay their tuition checks, a few things to consider.

First, more people are attending college than ever before and more older Americans who do not have a degree are exiting the workforce. As Investors Business Daily points out, 43 percent of those 25 and older had attended some college in 1992; in contrast, 57 percent attended some college in 2011.

In addition, it is necessary to note that the data include anyone who spent some time taking college courses, not everyone who graduated:

Unemployment for those 25 and up with some college but no degree was 8% in April compared to 6.6% for the age group, measured on a more volatile seasonally unadjusted basis. In the same month, the jobless rate was 7.7% for 25-and-up high school grads with no college and 6.2% for those with a two-year college degree.

In The Atlantic, Matthew O’Brien underscores that the figures show a “story about more people going to college, but not nearly as many more people finishing college” — too many people are finding themselves in the worst-of-both-worlds situation of having no college degree but debt from student loans. As a result,

Their finances get worse, but their job prospects don’t get much better. That’s how we get a world where most of the unemployed have attended at least some college.

O’Brien argues that the study adds to the case for keeping college tuition affordable, so students don’t find themselves overwhelmed by “short-term costs,” with the result that they drop out of college, continue to work a lower-paying job (indeed, they have to more than ever to pay back the debt they have accrued) and stay in that job or one like it.

O’Brien acknowledges that it’s not at all obvious how to go keep (make) college affordable. Mike Shedlock in Business Insider uses the data to argue for ending federal and state student loans programs, advising students not to choose such “useless or nearly-useless” majors as English and increasing competition by accrediting both more online and foreign universities. While these suggestions may make sense from a business, free-market perspective, they do students no real favors. Now may not be the best time to major in fine arts (not that it ever is) but there’s reason for caution in accrediting online (for-profit) universities and those in other countries.

We can cast more scrutiny on why college costs as much as it does. Executive pay has risen at many universities. Parents and students need to be savvy about what the financial aid office’s package really says before they send in a deposit: Every year, freshmen at my college disappear after the first semester, telling me that the school is too expensive, but they didn’t really realize this until after they had started attending classes.

Those who do have a college degree still have lower unemployment and still earn more than those who do not have one. The wage gap between them and those with only a high school degree is growing: Getting a college degree is more than worth it. The question is, how do we help students achieve that goal for their long-term futures, in view of the short-term pressures they face?

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