Shelley Moore Capito (R) isn’t thrilled about the new plan, and feels as though the president and the EPA are overstepping their boundaries by asserting their dominance over states’ and individuals’ rights.
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Compared with the 2014 proposal, the final version of the Clean Power Plan relies more on renewables and energy efficiency than on natural gas, she added. Obama also said that the new rules would create jobs and help children who suffer from asthma and respiratory problems, while curbing the damage to the planet’s ozone layer.
“Absent an immediate stay, the section 111(d) rule will coerce the states to expend enormous public resources and to put aside sovereign priorities to prepare state plans of unprecedented scope and complexity”, they wrote. State leaders should look at these options and begin talks with each other sooner rather than later.
The chief component of the rule requires existing power plants to cut emissions from 2005 carbon dioxide levels by 32 percent by 2030. “It’s the biggest, most important step we’ve ever taken to combat climate change“, Obama said, launching the plan on Monday. The White house said it ensures the U.S. will stay on a path of long-term clean energy investments that will maintain the reliability of our electric grid, promote affordable and clean energy for all Americans, and continue United States leadership on climate action. The association said Obama’s plan will “not only will it reduce the carbon pollution that causes climate change, but it will also lead to less soot- and smog-forming pollution, resulting in significant health benefits”.
New Jersey must cut its carbon emissions by almost 26 percent in the next 15 years. Each state would have to figure out how to meet that goal. “We’re the last generation that can do something about it”, Obama said.
Congress could address all three failings with a simple, economy-wide, market-based, long-term strategy that could credibly replace the president’s Clean Power Plan.
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“The Clean Power Plan is scientifically flawed and if implemented will not achieve minimum reductions”, Gov. Matt Mead said. The plan, formally released by President Obama, for the first time sets national carbon dioxide emission standards. Seven years later, we are cutting carbon emissions from our cars, our trucks, our government, our businesses and institutions, and now from our power plants.
