Yohe on the Keystone XL Pipeline

Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies Gary Yohe responded to a new study which predicted the Keystone XL Pipeline could produce carbon emissions as high as four times the level previously stated by the U.S. State Department. The earlier estimates didn’t take into account the downward pressure the pipeline would put on fuel prices, if approved, spurring greater fuel consumption and increasing pollution.

Lower fuel prices may sound like a good thing, Yohe told The Associated Press, but there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

“Lower fuel prices are bad if they don’t include all of the social costs,” he said. “Consumers are happy, but the planet is not necessarily.”

Yohe is also chair of economics.