What Obama's climate change proposal means for consumers and energy companies

NEW YORK — America is slowly moving toward cleaner sources of energy and using less of it overall. President Barack Obama's plan to fight climate change will accelerate those trends.

The plan aims to reduce power-plant emissions of carbon dioxide, increase America's reliance on natural gas and renewables and make trucks, homes and businesses more efficient.

Some parts of the plan will take months to work out and years to go into full effect. The most ambitious part of the plan seeks to rein in one of the biggest sources of carbon dioxide emissions: coal-fired power plants. Obama will direct the Environmental Protection Agency to create the first-ever federal limits on these emissions, which trap heat in the earth's atmosphere.

Obama also seeks to increase funding for clean energy research by 30 percent to $7.9 billion and make $8 billion in federal loan guarantees available to projects that could help capture and bury the carbon dioxide produced at power plants.

Here's how the plan will likely affect companies and consumers:

— UTILITIES AND COAL PRODUCERS

Power plants account for 40 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions, and most of those emissions come from burning coal. To reduce these emissions, power companies will have to run coal plants less often, install equipment that captures carbon dioxide or shut down plants that become too expensive to operate.

Very few, if any, new coal-fired plants will be built. A shift toward natural gas power plants is already underway thanks to a boom in natural gas production that has caused the price of the fuel to plummet; Obama's plan will magnify this trend, analysts say.

The stock prices of the nation's biggest coal miners, including Peabody Energy Corp., Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. and Arch Coal, Inc., have fallen more than 10 percent over the past two days as details of Obama's plan trickled out.

The financial effect on utilities that rely heavily on coal, such as NRG Energy and First Energy, is unclear. While coal-fired power will become more costly, that will be offset by higher electricity prices.

Obama's plan offers clear benefits to natural gas producers such as Exxon Mobil and Chesapeake Energy and to utilities such as Exelon, Entergy and Calpine, which generate large amounts of electricity using low-carbon sources like nuclear power and natural gas.

— RENEWABLE ENERGY COMPANIES

This will help companies that provide equipment for, build and finance large wind and solar farms, such as First Solar, SunPower, General Electric and Siemens.

Wind, solar, and other non-hydroelectric renewable power sources generated 4.8 percent of the nation's electricity last year, double what those sources contributed to the nation's energy mix five years ago. Over that same period, total electricity consumption fell by one percent as the economy slowed and appliances and buildings have become more efficient.

Experts predict that U.S. electricity consumption will grow very slowly, if at all, in the years to come.

— ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Companies that install windows, insulation and heating and cooling systems stand to benefit from the Obama plan, which will give homeowners and businesses incentives to invest in energy-efficiency improvements. While the upfront costs can be high, the long-term savings can be significant.

Tighter fuel efficiency standards and higher gasoline and diesel prices over the last several years have cut sharply into U.S. oil consumption. Last year total U.S. consumption of petroleum products fell to 18.6 million barrels per day, the lowest level since 1997. Consumption is expected to fall further as newer fuel economy standards take effect.

The new standards for trucks would go into effect for vehicles made in 2018 and beyond. Engine-makers and parts suppliers that succeed in developing fuel-efficient technologies could benefit. While trucking companies may face higher equipment costs at first, their fuel bills will decline.

— ELECTRIC CUSTOMERS

Homeowners and businesses will likely pay more for electricity because the nation will be relying less on coal, which has historically been the cheapest way to produce electricity.

But more efficient homes and appliances are helping reduce energy consumption, which will likely offset at least some of the higher electricity cost.