For all the complexity of the new rules, the basic plan is straightforward.
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The final version of the rules were revealed this week.
The sound of dump trucks and 80-foot cranes moving steel beams fills a small, windy county road outside of Martinsville. Pennsylvania, for example, still has 78 coal-fired power plants, the most polluting kind.
According to a report by Chicago Sun-Times, Blase Cupich (Archbishop of Chicago) teamed up with Gina McCarthy (Environmental Protection Agency Administrator) to inspect the archdiocesan power and water usage at a Catholic school with the help of EPA’s Energy Star program on July 25. Through that process, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will work with these groups across the state to develop a fair and effective transition to a clean-energy future. “So the question is what are we going to replace that with?”
“The answer is it’s too soon to say”, says Ken Richards, an environmental economics professor at Indiana University.
The Clean Power Plan unveiled last week marks the first national effort to slash climate-warming carbon emissions from power plants.
“The Clean Power Plan recognizes that solar power and energy storage are changing the century-old way we make electricity”. As a national leader in wind energy generation and manufacturing, Iowa is already on track to achieve and surpass a its carbon reduction goal. “Indiana, about 3 to 4 percent“. The new standard will also spur innovation and boost private sector investments in renewable energy as the demand for these clean energy sources increases.
“Since 1970 the emissions from coal fueled power plants have decreased tremendously 80-90 percent, sulfur and nitrogen…while we’re producing 100 percent more electricity from coal“.
More than a year ago, lobbyists and Republican strategists began meeting to strategize about how to block the Clean Power Plan.
This is not the first time the EPA has issued unreasonable regulations. But he says the EPA isn’t giving them a chance. Specifically, a state can elect either to impose these requirements on its power plants only or, in the alternative, elect to enact broader initiatives impacting other carbon sources.
The latest plan does not tell utilities how to get emissions down, a point in its favor, but rather allows them flexibility to figure it out for themselves. Most significant, it will give the United States far more leverage and credibility in the upcoming global negotiations.
But Montana had also argued for a using a multi-year average as the base for calculating existing emission levels, and the EPA didn’t fully accept that.
Gov. Pence is reviewing the EPA rules to determine if Indiana will comply with the rules. Some others have written to states to implement the guidelines because the plan will create jobs and a sustainable economy in the long run.
Jodi Perras with the Sierra Club says what’s important is that Indiana doesn’t drag its feet. While the public health and climate benefits are reason enough to take action, we should not overlook the economic opportunity the Clean Power Plan provides. “Instead what we ought to be doing is rolling up our sleeves and saying carbon regulation is coming”.
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Unless the courts halt the EPA’s rule, Indiana will be required to submit a carbon reduction plan within the next nine months.
