You can easily see how each state is making energy choices that are geographically specific, but also where the opportunities are still to be found. Solar plants now only supply eight percent of the country’s power, but it’s the fastest-growing renewable energy industry.
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The “Clean Power Plan” sets standards that will cap the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that are released from power plants. “This plan doesn’t make our air any cleaner or our environment any safer, but it will inflict tremendous economic and human costs with the poor and middle class hit the hardest”. “The valuable feedback we received means the final Clean Power Plan is more ambitious yet more achievable, so states can customize plans to achieve their goals in ways that make sense for their communities, businesses and utilities”.
“Anything like this to improve air quality, we are a proponent of”, he said.
Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today released the following statement after the president announced the EPA’s final rule to regulate emissions from U.S. power plants.
Climate policy analyst Niklas Hoehne, of the New Climate Institute, said: “Although it is an important step towards meeting the US’s worldwide pledge, on its own it is not enough”.
If the state Senate and House both approve of the DEP’s plan, the state could submit it to the EPA.
The EPA’s rule also allows state to opt for what’s called a cap and trade program. “Increased costs is one of the major criticisms held by opponents of the plan, while supporters laud the Clean Power Plan’s pollution controls and shift away from coal“, said the Columbus Business First. The state and Georgia Power have already closed older coal-fired power plants and updated pollution controls on other plants.
Right now, though, state officials are hoping the EPA rules won’t go into effect. His Clean Power Plan says it would prevent thousands of premature deaths, create jobs, and much more.
States included in this request are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Rutledge previously joined several other states in a lawsuit challenging a draft version of the rule, but a federal appeals court tossed the suit, saying it was premature because the rule had not been finalized.
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Enck said New York’s plan is due by September 2016.
