EPA plan for coal-fired plants will reduce death, illness

Over the next few years, each state will have the chance to create its own plan, he said, adding: “We’ll reward the states that take action sooner.” The plan aims to reduce carbon emissions some 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. A cabinet spokesman noted that the changes in emissions goals between the proposed and final rules were starkest for Kentucky among all the states, and the cabinet is “shocked” at the difference between the two plans.

Now, US President Barack Obama has announced new curbs on carbon emissions from power plants under the Clean Power Plan, a set of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that if followed through, could be path breaking. The Clean Power Plan drives investment into wind and solar power by imposing carbon-dioxide reduction targets that states can meet only by shifting generation from coal and gas to renewables.

According to Vox.com, states can ramp up renewable energy to hit their targets, they can reduce output from their existing coal plants and ramp up output from natural gas plants.

They couldn’t be. The Clean Power Plan has become yet another important policy on which public discussion is degraded by an onslaught of political spin.

U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis said the plan would force the closure of coal-fired power plants.

The regulations will face several lawsuits in court, but the burden of the plan really falls on who Americans will elect as their next president in 2016 since the new rules don’t actually take effect until after Obama leaves office.

Vicki Card, permitting services supervisor in CSU’s environmental department, says the city has “a diverse portfolio” of power resources, and is in “a pretty good place to determine how this plan is going to affect our future resource options”. “Yet little to no consideration was given to states like ours throughout the development of the EPA’s final rule and that is simply not acceptable”.

While utilities and industry may have to change their practices, Masuca said a cut in greenhouse emissions could raise the profile of the city and increase its appeal to new businesses looking to locate to Birmingham. Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidates are stoking fears about the plan’s impact on jobs and home utility costs.

The final version of Obama’s plan imposes stricter carbon dioxide limits on states than had been expected.

“In the proposal we looked at each state in isolation”, said McCabe, acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s office of air and radiation.