“And we may not be able to adapt sufficiently”.
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Although Obama faces criticism for the plan, it takes immediate effect as an executive order. Morrisey says the entire proposal is “fundamentally and patently illegal”.
For example, Freeman notes that the draft version set emission targets for entire states instead of specific polluters. “We are confident that we will prevail”.
Power plants account for some 40 per cent of US carbon dioxide emissions, the most common greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.
The new plan, which will significantly increase electricity generation from wind and solar plants and force a switch away from coal, is expected to trigger a wave of opposition from both utilities and state-level authorities.
The French President François Hollande has hailed the “courage” of Barack Obama for committing the US to unprecedented cuts in carbon emissions as the US president takes up the fight against climate change before December’s key global conference in Paris.
Obama’s proposed version last year called only for a 30% cut.
It also gives states an additional two years – until 2022 – to comply, yielding to complaints that the original deadline was too soon.
Under the plan, CNN reports, the administration will require states to meet specific carbon emission reduction standards, based on their individual energy consumption. Juan Parras, director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, welcomed the new rules – but says more needs to be done to protect communities that live next to polluters.
“This is an especially wicked-cool moment”, said McCarthy, wielding a colloquialism from her hometown of Boston.
Legal challenges will focus not on whether the Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to regulate carbon emissions – the Supreme Court has already settled that question – but on how it will do so.
However, there are still a number of climate change doubters – many of them in the rival Republican party, and some of them running to be the next President. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, said he would do everything in his power to combat the rules.
It is estimated that the annual climate benefits the Clean Power Plan will deliver by 2030 will amount to $54 billion (€49 billion). The actual price won’t be clear until states decide how they’ll reach their targets.
Obama said this reduction will be the equivalent of taking 166 million internal-combustion cars off the road.
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The final rule raises the share of generating capacity anticipated to come from renewable sources from 22 percent to 28 percent.
