Sixteen states will have tougher carbon dioxide reduction targets than they originally planned now that President Barack Obama has presented his final plan to cut emissions from U.S. power plants. “The U.S. can and will be able to change the world in addressing a climate phenomenon”. In a rational world, legislators would take this as an opportunity to inaugurate a debate, not about whether the country must cut its greenhouse emissions but about how to do it better, more cheaply and for the long term.
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In announcing the “Clean Power Plan” on Monday, Obama predicted some of the arguments his critics would make.
Wyoming, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas are the other states among the 16 that will have to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions the most, compared with the original proposal.
According to WRI, the power is responsible for 30.8 percent of the U.S.’s total emissions.
Initial versions of the individual state plans must be submitted by 2016, with final versions due by 2018.
Administrator Gina McCarthy unveiled the revised Clean Power Plan at the White House today. 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.
The administration is trumpeting the new rules as the penultimate moment for reversing climate change.
The White House would encourage a drastic shift from the use of coal towards renewable energy in generating electricity, setting the target for renewable share of electric generation at 28 percent of all capacity.
But the Omaha-based Platte Institute for Economic Research released a statement saying the plan would hurt the state economy without having much direct effect on global climate emissions. With coal all but dead, natural gas is key to keeping energy affordable, particularly in states like Michigan, which gets half its power from coal burning plants. Some states have vowed to take the administration to court over the new rules and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has urged states not to comply with the plan.
It remains true, though, that this is a second-best plan, for both the environment and the economy.
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At the same time, there’s been a 15 percent reduction in energy consumption due to state incentives.
