The chairman of E.ON North America has called on US energy firms to embrace rather than fight President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
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ALTHOUGH some environmentalists are arguing that the sweeping new curbs on carbon emissions announced by US President Barack Obama, on Monday, are not enough to effectively deal with the crisis posed by climate change, we believe that the measures are a step in the right direction.
Terry Lansdell, Clean Air Carolina’s program director, said asking states to work together in this way will mean real change in air quality.
American ingenuity has proved that it will prevail when polluters are challenged, but the health of millions might not.
“As energy is used more efficiently, non-competitive power plants can be retired, construction of new coal plants can be deferred and transmission and distribution line upgrades can be delayed”, says Brown.
The federal proposal also sketches out guidelines for US states to follow until they devise their own clean energy plans. It’s a race to the top, and the Clean Power Plan gives the United States a better chance of winning. Montana’s target had been to cut its emissions rate 21 percent by 2030, now that goal is 47 percent. “It’s this one rule after another coming out of the Obama administration which affects coal”. Alaska and Hawaii are isolated from the rest of the nation’s electrical grid, leaving EPA officials without the data they used to set goals for the other states. But what you didn’t hear the president say is that despite the significant increase this will cause in energy bills for hardworking middle-class families, this plan actually does little to nothing to alter the impact of future climate change.
Many states with Republican governors have said they simply won’t comply.
The problem with the administration’s energy equation is that it prevents a shift to natural gas, a clean, affordable energy source and one that utilities were counting on to replace coal. “At the very minimum, the States and their citizens should not be forced to suffer these serious harms until the courts have had an opportunity to review the Rule’s legality”. Other states joining in the request are Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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Consumers next year will shutter seven coal-fired units, including Muskegon’s B.C. Cobb plant.
