What Obama’s ‘Clean Power Plan’ Means For Oregon

US President Barack Obama has unveiled an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the country’s coal-burning power plants, with the White House hoping that nations like India and China will be fully on board for a landmark climate change deal in Paris.

In accordance with the Clean Power Plan, each state will be given individual goals for cutting Carbon dioxide emissions and it will be up to the state to decide how to get there.

Phasing out coal, the dirtiest form of power generation, likely will feature prominently in many states’ plans. The Clean Power Plan represents a modest and necessary, not an extreme, step toward that end.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Wednesday joined with officials in 15 other states in asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for an immediate stay of its Clean Power Plan pending the outcome of a planned legal challenge to the rule.

A bi-partisan group of lawmakers Wednesday talked about the need for Illinois to have time to digest the 2,000-page Clean Power Plan. S. has taken to address the climate change issue. If it doesn’t, the EPA will impose its own standards on the state. By improving air quality, the plan promises to prevent 90,000 childhood asthma attacks and avoid up to 3,600 premature deaths each year – without compromising economic growth.

The Chamber of Commerce characterized the plan as a power grab. (Not to mention that two-thirds of Georgia’s electricity is sourced by coal.).

Now that goals have been set, the EPA is expected to give states a wide array of flexibility to meet their targets, including a vast array of different techniques.

Consumers next year will shutter seven coal-fired units, including Muskegon’s B.C. Cobb plant.

Also, the states’ ongoing efforts to reduce energy demand won’t be included in their baseline measurements the way that other factors, like replacing coal plants with cleaner sources, will be. Under the plan, by 2030, renewable energy resources will account for 28 percent of the country’s capacity which will subsequently save the average American nearly 85 dollars on their energy bill, and save consumers a total of 155 billion dollars from 2020-2030, reducing enough energy to power 30 million homes. These incentives, along with the plummeting cost of renewables like solar, will make clean energy solutions the increasingly affordable compliance option.

President Obama is clearly on the side of renewable energy, despite critics who say the new plan will drive up electricity bills.