Climate 411

States and Power Companies Lead the Way on the Clean Power Plan

By Mandy Warner / Published: November 6, 2015

The Clean Power Plan is now officially in business, and protecting the health and safety of all Americans.

The Clean Power Plan establishes America’s first-ever nationwide limits on harmful carbon pollution from our nation’s largest source, power plants. It builds on years of stakeholder engagement and input, and adopts a flexible approach that empowers states to develop their own individually tailored compliance plans that reflect their own policy priorities.

States have tremendous flexibility to minimize costs and maximize the public health and economic benefits of state-based solutions to reduce harmful carbon pollution.

States in the Driver’s Seat

Not surprisingly, states from Michigan to Colorado have recognized the benefits of submitting state-forged compliance plans under this flexible framework.

Despite misguided political efforts to pressure them to “just say no,” state officials are constructively engaging and developing solutions — and in the process, demonstrating leadership and innovation.

In the months since the Clean Power Plan was released, state policymakers have made clear that they intend to lead. Let’s take a closer look:

The Republican Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, indicating Michigan would comply with the Clean Power Plan, said:

The best way to protect Michigan is to develop a state plan that reflects Michigan’s priorities of adaptability, affordability, reliability and protection of the environment. We need to seize the opportunity to make Michigan’s energy decisions in Lansing…

Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania said:

My administration is committed to making the Clean Power Plan work for Pennsylvania… Working with the legislature, industry leaders and citizens we will create a plan to ensure these new rules are applied fairly, allow for adjustments, and that they create economic opportunities for the commonwealth’s energy economy. Today’s plan sets ambitious but achievable goals for reducing carbon emissions statewide and addressing climate change in fair and smart ways that takes into account legitimate concerns of all parties.

Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado said:

We realize these are ambitious goals and may be challenging for Colorado, but we have risen to these challenges before by developing a mix of cost-effective strategies across the energy spectrum. We will continue our work with utilities and communities to meet these new federal requirements while preserving affordable energy rates. Clean air is important to all of Colorado and building on the work that’s already done, we will continue on the path of improving our local air quality.

Governor Jerry Brown of California said:

I welcome this bold and absolutely necessary carbon reduction plan. California is fully engaged in tackling climate change, and we look forward to working with other states and the White House as we implement these new mandates.

Power Companies Are Working With States to Craft Compliance Plans

Major power companies have also recognized the opportunities available with home-grown compliance plans that fully harvest state flexibility and the potential of a low-carbon economy. Xcel Energy, for example, just announced plans to cut carbon emissions across its Northern States Power system by 60 percent by 2030, at negligible cost to consumers.

Calpine stated:

The Clean Power Plan represents a commitment to continuing the transition from carbon intensive generation to efficient, low-carbon generation …This flexible, market-based solution will reward the companies that invest and have invested smartly in cleaner generation. We applaud the EPA for its efforts throughout this collaborative process and look forward to working with the agency, states and other stakeholders as the rule is ultimately implemented.

Xcel Energy stated:

We appreciate the EPA’s willingness to work with stakeholders in developing this groundbreaking and complex set of regulations. It will take time to thoroughly review and assess the full impact of the rules. While we expect the Clean Power Plan does not provide everything we hoped for in terms of fully recognizing the early actions of proactive states and utilities, Xcel Energy is ready to move ahead. We look forward to working with our states in the best interest of our customers, ensuring we continue to meet their expectations for clean, reliable and affordable power.

PSEG stated they support the Clean Power Plan:

We are pleased with the recognition that energy efficiency is an important tool to reducing greenhouse gases. We understand states may be incentivized to promote energy efficiency for low-income customers as an early tool to reduce greenhouse gases. We believe utilities can play a critical role in making sure that all energy users — especially low and moderate income customers who need it most — have access to energy efficiency.

NV Energy stated, upon release of the final Clean Power Plan:

We supported the rule as it was proposed in June 2014, including the building block and flexible compliance concepts. We do not anticipate a significant impact on our customer rates as we move towards reliable renewable generation methods and reducing our emissions.

NextEra stated, upon Governor Snyder’s announcement:

As the nation’s leading renewable energy developer, owner and operator, with a significant presence in Michigan, we take great pride in developing and operating projects that are environmentally responsible and economically viable. We applaud Governor Snyder’s efforts and are in complete support of Michigan submitting a state implementation plan as part of EPA’s Clean Power Plan. We look forward to working with the State of Michigan and doing what we can to help the state cost-effectively meet the goals set out in the Clean Power Plan.

There is also broad business and investor support for the Clean Power Plan, with 365 companies from 29 states signing letters in support of the Clean Power Plan in July, saying:

Our support is firmly grounded in economic reality. Clean energy solutions are cost effective and innovative ways to drive investment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Increasingly, businesses rely on renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions to cut costs and improve corporation performance.

State officials, power companies, and businesses across the country recognize the importance of stepping up to the plate, thoughtfully shaping the path to reduce dangerous carbon pollution while charting their own clean energy future, and capitalizing on the substantial opportunity the Clean Power Plan presents.

Posted in Clean Power Plan, Partners for Change / Comments are closed

Saving Thousands of Lives, Preventing Millions of Asthma Attacks – And Rising Above the Hair Salon Rhetoric

By Mandy Warner / Published: September 24, 2015

Go Fly a Kite! www.toronto4kids.com

If you had the chance to save 7,900 lives every year and prevent 1.8 million annual asthma attacks in children, would you take it?

That is the very question before the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House now as we are nearing the final deadline for updated national health-based smog air quality standards.

Smog is a deadly pollutant that contributes to asthma attacks, early deaths, missed school days for kids and more harmful impacts to human health.

  1. Strong, health-based smog standards would save the lives of 7,900 Americans each year.
  2. Strong, health-based smog standards would prevent 1.8 million annual asthma attacks in children.
  3. Strong, health-based standards are essential to ensure that all Americans know whether the air in their neighborhoods and communities is safe to breathe – through the “truth in labeling” that links our nation’s air pollution monitoring system with air quality standards anchored in medical science.

It is well established that our nation’s health-based standards are the very bedrock of our nation’s clean air laws – saving lives and empowering communities with critical air quality information.

What is standing in the way of saving lives and ensuring healthier air for our families and children? A well-funded “sky is falling” campaign by polluters and other naysayers. These big emitters claim that our nation cannot afford protective smog standards. These opponents also attack the science that shows the need for a stronger smog standard, in direct opposition to the more than one thousand peer-reviewed studies that EPA considered while working on updating the health-based standard.

Unfortunately, these “sky is falling” claims are all too familiar. Claims questioning science and fear mongering over economic impacts have been made almost every time we talk about the need for stronger clean air protections – and they have never borne out. Clean air benefits outweigh costs of implementation by about 30 to one, according to a landmark study assessing the Clean Air Act.

It’s worth recalling the outlandish claims made by opponents of the 1997 smog standard. A key Senator from Michigan warned that health-protective smog standards would cause hair salons to go out of business. You’ve probably noticed that we still have a lot of hair salons in America. We also have a lot less smog – and that has saved a lot of lives.

But we could do much better. That’s why I hope that EPA and White House will take this opportunity to lead on clean air — and to ensure longer, healthier lives for millions of Americans in this generation and the next. Let’s save lives. Let’s protect our children and our communities. Let’s rise above the “sky is falling” rhetoric and work together to ensure the sky is clearing — putting medical science, healthy families and health communities first.

Posted in Clean Air Act, Health, News, Policy / Comments are closed

The Clean Power Plan – a Vibrant Partnership with the States

By Mandy Warner / Published: August 3, 2015

We are on the verge of seeing the final Clean Power Plan, after years of stakeholder engagement and input. So this is a good time to acknowledge what many state leaders themselves recognize – that EPA’s Clean Power Plan reflects the extensive input of states on its core, most fundamental framework, including the establishment of carbon intensity standards that reflect the different energy mixes in each state, and extensive state flexibility to achieve the standards in a manner that enables state-based compliance plans that minimize costs and maximize benefits.

States Leading the Way

Not surprisingly, states from Michigan to California recognize the benefits of submitting state-forged compliance plans under this flexible framework. Despite misguided efforts to pressure them to “just say no”, state officials are digging in deep and constructively engaging — an in the process, demonstrating what actual leadership looks like.

Let’s take a closer look at what state leaders themselves are saying about this.

Bob Martineau, president of the Environmental Council of the States and a commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, praised EPA for its extensive outreach to states prior to issuing the proposed Clean Power Plan.

Martineau stated:

…as you’ve seen, the Clean Power Plan set a state-by-state proposed guideline, now you could agree or disagree with it, but that was a clear voice the states said to EPA prior to the proposal is we’re not all starting in the same place, so one uniform number of a reduction target won’t work, given the different states’ unique characteristics … [The early outreach] was effective in some of those things like to recognize the difference in where the states were starting with their energy portfolio and what their realistic targets would be. (Tenn. environment Commissioner Martineau talks power plan’s jurisdictional challenges, E&E News, March 23, 2015)

Many other state leaders have commented publicly on the benefits of proactive state planning in this flexible framework and the urgent need to take action.

In a recent interview on Meet the Press, Governor Jerry Brown of California stated:

Here’s the point, that the buildup of carbon coming from coal and petroleum and other sources, that this is going to create these droughts and much, much worse. And that’s why to have the leader of the Senate, Mr. McConnell representing his coal constituents, are putting it at risk, the health and well being of America, is a disgrace.

The Republican Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, told the Battle Creek Enquirer that change is coming:

[S]o let’s be proactive and design a policy to accommodate that.

Paul Thomsen, head of Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval’s energy office, told the Elko Daily Free Press:

My position is there’s no state better positioned to be able to comply with those standards. We’ve been ahead of the federal government for some time.

Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Arizona legislature recently passed a bill expressly providing for the development of a state-compliance strategy to meet EPA requirements under the Clean Power Plan.

Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado directly responded to Senator McConnell’s request that states not submit plans by saying:

Colorado is already a leader in reducing carbon emissions from power plants, on track to hit an estimated 20% reduction over 2012 emissions – and we have done all this while keeping energy rates affordable. We will continue to engage with our industry to develop a compliant Clean Power Plan, as required by federal law.

John Quigley, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection recently said:

[W]e can meet this mandate, this clean-power mandate, in a way that benefits Pennsylvania’s economy and environment. (Pa. DEP Secretary Quigley discusses state’s shift on power plan. E&E News PM, July 20, 2015)

Additionally, red and blue states including Utah, Michigan, Missouri, and Pennsylvania are working with the National Governors’ Association (NGA) to identify cost-effective strategies for reducing carbon emissions to comply with the Clean Power Plan.

As Utah officials said:

Knowing that we will likely find ourselves having to comply with some form of carbon regulation in the near term, we are determined not to be caught flat-footed. (Coal-heavy states explore carbon-cutting options with support from National Governors Association, ClimateWire, March 24, 2015)

In their application to NGA, they stressed that:

[B]eing proactive and strategically positioned to comply with impending federal regulations is preferred to being reactive. (Coal-heavy states explore carbon-cutting options with support from National Governors Association, ClimateWire, March 24, 2015)

Power Companies Working With States to Craft Compliance Plans

Major power companies also recognize the benefits of homemade compliance plans that fully harvest state flexibility.

A recent, salient example comes from the coal-intensive state of Wyoming where Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s Chief Environmental Counsel, Cathy Woolums, recently provided comments at the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority winter meeting that indicated the importance of action by the state to submit a compliance plan for the Clean Power Plan.

Woolums stated:

[I]f the state wants to push back against the plan, that’s okay, but we really do have to have a backup plan because if not, we will be caught in a situation where we don’t have any options…And that’s the worst of all positions to be in.

An additional critical point she made is that the 2030 targets of the CPP are achievable, she and showed important leadership when she urged state officials to work with other states to meet the targets.

Leveraging Opportunities for State Policy Priorities through the Clean Power Plan

As observed by Richard Revesz, legal scholar and Director of the Institute for Policy Integrity, the extraordinary state flexibility under the Clean Power Plan provides a tremendous opportunity for state policy priorities to be thoroughly integrated into state planning – and it is worth fighting for.

Revesz told the Wall Street Journal that the Clean Power Plan sets:

…statewide carbon reduction targets that states can meet through any means they choose: improvements in the efficiency of energy production, increased use of natural gas and renewable energy, programs that help consumers save energy, or any other strategy the states prefer … This flexible approach is one of the rule’s greatest strengths—it will allow states and energy companies to reduce their emissions through the cheapest and most effective means available. (The Legal and Economic Case for Obama’s Clean Power Plan, Wall Street Journal, March 31, 2015)

EPA conducted unprecedented outreach around the Clean Power Plan, and state and power company officials across the country were highly engaged in the process.

States underscored the importance of ensuring that the plan EPA proposed include substantial flexibility for states that allowed them to craft a plan tailored to their own states’ unique energy profile. The Clean Power Plan delivers on this promise of flexibility for state compliance, and gives states the opportunity to be in the driver’s seat to secure cost-effective emissions reductions to protect the health of their families and our climate in the best way possible.

Judging from the way states across the country are engaging constructively with EPA and their stakeholders in the lead-up to a final rule, it is clear that state officials are recognizing the importance of stepping up to the plate and thoughtfully shaping the path to their own clean energy future. That’s real leadership.

Posted in Clean Power Plan, News, Partners for Change / Comments are closed

American Petroleum Institute Continues Its Long Campaign against Clean Air Standards

By Mandy Warner / Published: June 22, 2015

iStockphoto.com

I recently had the unfortunate experience of hearing a two-year-old suffer from an asthma attack. The nurses commented in passing how it was actually a great sign to hear the young child screaming, as it was more worrisome when children came in with asthma attacks and were unable to draw breath. As a mother of a two-year-old myself, hearing the terrified screams of this child was utterly heartbreaking.

This was the first time I’ve come face to face with a child suffering the effects of asthma – a terrible respiratory disease that is often exacerbated by air pollution. The thought of thousands of parents making preventable visits to the emergency room each year, desperate to get help for their children who are having asthma attacks triggered by smog or other air pollution, is gut wrenching. It’s also a poignant reminder of why we need to keep demanding more progress to clean our air.

Smog is primarily formed by emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The main sources of these emissions are power plants, oil and gas operations, and cars and trucks.

Setting smog limits to 60 ppb would, in the year 2025:

  • Prevent up to 7,900 premature deaths
  • Prevent up to 1.8 million asthma attacks among children
  • Prevent up to 4,100 cases of acute bronchitis among children
  • Prevent up to 1.9 million days when kids miss school
  • Provide up to $75 billion in public health benefits

Smog contributes to thousands of asthma attacks and other harmful health impacts every year – including early deaths. Pollution also blows into our national parks, harming wildlife and vegetation. EPA is required by law to re-evaluate each of our nation’s air quality standards every five years, ensuring our air standards are updated to reflect the latest scientific understanding of the impacts of pollution. Strengthening our nation’s outdated smog standards will help us continue the progress we’ve made in cleaning up our air, in line with what scientists and leading public health organizations have determined is needed to protect human health and the environment.

Unfortunately, the American Petroleum Institute (API), a trade association representing oil and natural gas industries, has launched a campaign against strengthened smog standards. In its ads, API claims our current standard is strict enough, despite the fact that an independent advisory committee of scientific experts concluded the opposite over seven years ago. Since that time, an even more extensive body of scientific research documents the harms of ozone to human health.

API is also claiming that strengthened smog standards will bring exorbitant costs to American families — this is based on an analysis roundly criticized by experts for its unrealistic assumptions and for the fact that it ignores the substantial economic benefits of reducing air pollution.

Sadly, this is nothing new from API. API has claimed time and again that clean air standards would be too costly and wouldn’t yield health or environmental benefits. For standards advancing low sulfur fuel and vehicles (Tier 3) API said:

The new EPA requirements could be devastating to consumers and communities across the nation  – Bob Greco, API Director of Downstream Operations, API press release, July 29, 2011.

API also claimed gas prices could rise up to 25 cents a gallon due to the standards. However, EPA and independent analysis by Mathpro projects that gasoline prices will increase by less than 1 penny per gallon due to the Tier 3 standards. EPA also found the standards would provide up to $13 in health benefits from every dollar invested. The Tier 3 Standards were finalized in 2014 with broad support from automakers and manufacturers, labor groups, health and environmental groups, environmental justice groups, moms groups, and numerous states.

Yet again with the smog standards, API is completely ignoring the fact that we have cost-effective tools at our disposal to meet strengthened smog standards. We also have policies underway that are already helping us get there, including tailpipe emissions reduction standards, and the proposed Clean Power Plan. We also know that there are emission reductions that are readily available right now. For example, some power plant units have installed advanced controls for NOx that have not been used consistently in recent years.

Nearly every step of the way to cleaner air in the past four decades, we have had to fight polluter interests that claim the costs will be too high, the economy will be ruined, or that our air is already clean enough. Time and again these claims have been disproven — our economy has grown as our air quality has improved due to clean air standards, and literally trillions of dollars in health and other benefits have accrued.

API’s latest campaign against much-needed, long overdue, cost-effective smog standards is a continuation of the decades-long battle we have faced. We ask you to urge API to cease its campaign against the ozone standards and instead constructively engage in the process to reduce the pollution that harms millions of American families. Please help the children across America – each child — breathe cleaner air for life.

Posted in Health, News / Comments are closed

Half a Million People across America Support Stronger Protections against Smog Pollution

By Mandy Warner / Published: April 2, 2015

Our friends at Moms Clean Air Force dropping off their smog comments at EPA

The comment period has now closed for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to strengthen our national health-based smog standards, and we know one thing already:

Support for cleaning up our air has been tremendous and far-reaching.

More than half a million people from across our nation sent comments urging EPA to strengthen America’s health-based smog protections. And we’re so grateful to our dedicated members and activists for helping EDF collect more than 130,000 of those comments.

EDF strongly supports strengthening our public health standards for ground-level ozone—more commonly known as smog.

Smog contributes to a variety of health problems, including increased risk for asthma attacks, long-term lung damage, other heart and lung diseases, and even premature death. The most susceptible groups are young children and elderly adults.

But it isn’t just EDF – and it isn’t only environmental organizations — calling for cleaner air.

Leading medical associations, states, moms, and environmental justice organizations have highlighted the challenges their constituencies face from this pollution — and have voiced their support for tighter smog protections.

Here are just a few examples:

WE ACT for Environmental Justice said improved smog standards are urgently needed to protect the children in Harlem afflicted by smog pollution:

According to the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in 2012, children aged 0 to 4 in the Harlem [sic] visited the emergency room 280 times because of asthma. There is no doubt that children in Northern Manhattan are suffering disproportionately from asthma, which is exacerbated by the formation of Ozone and other social stressors.

Mom’s Clean Air Force also weighed in:

Parents have a right to know the truth about whether the air is safe to breathe… Smog standards that reflect current science will protect children from harmful air pollution.

The American Academy of Pediatrics said smog standards must be improved for the sake of children:

Simply put, children are different. They breathe faster. They spend more time outdoors, playing and being physically active. These combined differences mean that, at a given concentration of air pollution, children will be exposed to a higher dose. But their lungs are not fully developed until about 18 years of age. Children are thus at greatest risk from air pollution, because their increased physical activity, plus greater time spent outdoors, means that they are exposed to a higher dose of air pollutants.

In a 2014 joint letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget, Attorneys General  from New York, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Rhode Island all expressed support for strengthening our nation’s smog standards, stating that smog pollution has been a persistent problem for their states:

The States [listed above] have been battling ozone pollution (smog) for decades… Although we have made strides to reduce smog levels that harm public health in areas such as New York City and that harm our natural resources in areas such as the Adirondacks, smog remains a persistent threat. Much of this pollution is generated in upwind states and carried by prevailing winds into our States.

Dozens of organizations, including EDF, submitted a letter urging EPA to issue strong standards:

EPA must protect the health of children, people with asthma and other lung diseases, older Americans and other sensitive and vulnerable populations.

The American Lung Association and the March of Dimes wrote an op-ed for CNN that discussed the serious health issues at stake and voiced support for strengthened smog standards:

Over the past several years, a number of studies have indicated a likely link between higher levels of maternal ozone exposure and poor health outcomes in infants, including changes in lung structure and function, low birth weight and neuro-behavioral abnormalities. Many of these health effects can be expected to have lifelong consequences… ​Strengthening the ozone standard to reflect the best current science will help save lives and protect our families, including pregnant women and their babies.

This broad support for stronger smog standards shows how much is at stake for all of us.

Our nation has proven time and again that, by working together, we can achieve pollution reductions in a cost-effective manner. Strengthening these life-saving standards now will help us continue, and build on, progress made in the past that has provided healthier and longer lives for millions of Americans.

Posted in Clean Air Act, Health, Partners for Change, Policy, Smog / Comments are closed

The Clean Power Plan Wins Support from Millions of Americans, and a Broad Array of Diverse Groups

By Mandy Warner / Published: January 6, 2015
Americans rally for the Clean Power Plan

Americans rally for the Clean Power Plan

January is a time for New Year’s resolutions, hot chocolate and the tantalizing possibility of snow days.

For me, it’s also a time when I reflect on what the past year has meant for me, my family, and our world.

Right now, I’m focusing on climate change through these three interwoven lenses. Fortunately, this year I have a lot of significant and positive steps to reflect on.

Here’s the one I’m thinking about the most: the Clean Power Plan.

The Clean Power Plan will set the nation’s first-ever carbon pollution standards for power plants. It’s one of the biggest steps we’ve ever taken to address the pollution that harms our climate.

EDF strongly supports the Clean Power Plan, of course, but we’re certainly not alone.

These urgently needed standards have already won broad support from the faith community, moms, health and medical associations, businesses, power companies, Latino groups, states, and others – as well as from EDF and other environmental groups.

And more than three and a half million Americans sent comments in support of the Clean Power Plan to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Here are just a few quotes highlighting the Clean Power Plan’s support among diverse groups, and demonstrating the broad support about the need to protect our climate:

Climate change poses grave threats to public health. To protect our communities and the public, the United States must significantly reduce carbon pollution from the largest source, which are existing power plants. Our organizations support EPA’s overall approach with the Clean Power Plan, but urge EPA to strengthen the final plan to provide greater protection to public health.

  • Comment Letter from medical and public health associations: American Academy of Pediatrics, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, American Thoracic Society, Center for Climate Change and Health, Health Care Climate Council, Health Care Without Harm, Public Health Institute, and Trust for America’s Health

We applaud EPA for proposing a rule that will place the United States on a path to achieving meaningful reductions in carbon pollution, although we recognize that greater overall reductions will be necessary to meet the challenge of climate change. Our states are already demonstrating that significant, cost-effective reductions can be achieved from the power sector through the “system” EPA identifies as the basis for its proposed emission guideline. We therefore support EPA’s general approach to setting the emission guideline.

  • Joint Comments of state environmental agency leaders, energy agency leaders, public utilities commissioners from 14 states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington

We support the proposed rule’s overall objective of achieving meaningful emission reductions from existing power plants and encouraging investment in a clean energy future, and these technical comments are offered for the purpose of constructively supporting that objective. We agree with EPA that meaningful emission reductions can be achieved from the electric sector while maintaining electric system reliability.

 We strongly support EPA in moving forward with the proposed Clean Power Plan in the strongest form possible. We know that communities of color and low-income communities, including the Latino community, are frequently among those most negatively impacted by carbon pollution. Whether it is exposure to health damaging copollutants associated with carbon emissions or the present and worsening effects of climate change, these impacts are both direct and indirect and they threaten the social and economic order of overexposed and overburdened communities.

As businesses concerned about the immediate and long-term implications of climate change, we, the undersigned, strongly support the principles behind the draft Carbon Pollution Standard for existing power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Carbon Pollution Standard for existing power plants represents a critical step in moving our country towards a clean energy economy…Our support is firmly grounded in economic reality. We know that tackling climate change is one of America’s greatest economic opportunities of the 21st century and we applaud the EPA for taking steps to help the country seize that opportunity.

  • Letter signed by 223 companies, BICEP, CERES, CDP, and The Climate Group. Companies signing the letter include Unilever, Kellogg Company, Solar City, and SunPower

EPA’s efforts to limit dangerous carbon pollution from power plants will protect public health, fight climate change, and help our economy by sparking innovation in clean energy technologies. Our communities, our families and our children are counting on your leadership. Please enact strong limits on carbon pollution from America’s existing power plants.

And, while delivering more than 10,000 comments in support of the Clean Power Plan, The Reverend Sally Bingham, founder and president of Interfaith Power and Light said:

[W]e urge the EPA to move forward with the proposed standards for existing power plants so that we can reduce carbon pollution as quickly as possible to address climate change, protect human health, and care for all of Creation.

It has been a great privilege to work on the Clean Power Plan at EDF during the past year. That’s one of the things I’m reflecting on personally.

It’s true that climate change is an immense issue with far-reaching impacts. But the immensity of the challenge has united an extraordinary number of Americans, and moved a wide range of diverse groups to take action — and that is something we can all celebrate this New Year.

Posted in Clean Air Act, Clean Power Plan, Partners for Change, Policy / Read 1 Response