{"id":7746,"date":"2014-06-26T13:14:07","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T18:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=7746"},"modified":"2014-06-26T13:14:07","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T18:14:07","slug":"defenders-of-dirty-power-plants-use-doublespeak-to-shape-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2014\/06\/26\/defenders-of-dirty-power-plants-use-doublespeak-to-shape-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Defenders of dirty power plants use doublespeak to shape debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<div>\n<dl class=\"wp-caption alignright\" id=\"\" style=\"width: 388px\">\n<dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edf.org\/sites\/default\/files\/smokestack_378x235.jpg\" width=\"378\" height=\"235\" \/><\/dt>\n<dd class=\"wp-caption-dd\">Under the proposed Clean Power Plan, plants must cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<p><em>(This blog originally appeared on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edf.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/19\/defenders-dirty-power-plants-use-doublespeak-shape-debate\">EDF Voices<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>As we\u2019ve <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edf.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/02\/new-epa-rule-dirty-power-plants-fuels-strange-debate\">noted before,<\/a> few opponents of the federal Clean Power Plan want to stand up and say they favor unlimited carbon pollution. So they\u2019re apt to frame their arguments in more clever ways.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Under the proposed Clean Power Plan, plants must cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Sometimes their approach is to use misleading statistics \u2013 like when they talk about the cost of moving to clean energy without mentioning the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edf.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/cleaner-air-gave-americans-4300-pay-raise\">much larger benefits<\/a> of doing so.<\/p>\n<p>Or they\u2019ll use an appealing bit of logic, which sounds right until it\u2019s exposed to the way the world really works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It takes more than one EPA rule<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of those seemingly-logical attacks is the complaint that the plan the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.epa.gov\/carbon-pollution-standards\">rolled out June 2<\/a> won\u2019t solve climate change.<\/p>\n<p>A CATO Institute blog says, \u201cEPA\u2019s Regulations Will Not Mitigate Climate Change.\u201d At first glance, that seems like a step forward from the crazier objections \u2013 for instance, that climate change doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s really just a new strategy aimed at the same goal, like a lawyer who failed to impress the jury with an insanity defense and is now piecing together a fake alibi.<\/p>\n<p>Your suspicions should be raised immediately when coal conglomerates <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/fact-checker\/wp\/2014\/05\/23\/a-bogus-claim-that-electricity-prices-will-nearly-double-because-of-clean-coal-technology\/\">complain<\/a> that an EPA rule does \u201clittle\u201d to solve an environmental problem, which on the surface sounds like a worthy objection. Why should the United States take this step to end unlimited pollution from power plants, they ask, when it won\u2019t resolve the problem we are facing?<\/p>\n<p>The complaint rests on the idea that the pollution reductions from U.S. power plants will not cut enough emissions to stop global warming. And that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s like telling Ike to call off D-Day because the landing alone wouldn\u2019t defeat the Germans.<\/p>\n<p>Even though power plant emissions are the largest source of carbon pollution in the United States \u2013 as of 2011, our utilities put out more of this pollution than the entire economies of every foreign country but China \u2013 they\u2019re only a portion of total global output. So this plan does not, on its own, solve climate change.<\/p>\n<p>But this argument is sort of like telling Ike to call off D-Day because the landing alone wouldn\u2019t defeat the Germans.<\/p>\n<p>Or it\u2019s like telling a person with multiple risk factors for heart disease to keep smoking, because quitting won\u2019t prevent an attack on its own.\u00a0The reality is that in solving big problems, a major first step is always necessary and it&#8217;s always insufficient.<\/p>\n<p>The most important truth \u2013 in fact, the very reason some in industry are scrambling for arguments to oppose this new rule \u2013 is that the Clean Power Plan is a turning point in our environmental and economic history.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A historic step<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the first time, we\u2019ll cut carbon emissions from their largest source, and begin to drive greater investment in abundant, affordable clean energy.<\/p>\n<p>It will also have a big impact around the world. Addressing a major global problem in the 21<sup>st<\/sup> Century requires America to lead by example.<\/p>\n<p>By making a substantial cut in our largest source of carbon emissions, we will not only cut billions of tons of pollution, we will enable a much bigger step forward internationally.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s face it: Most of those in the fossil fuel industry who argue that the Clean Power Plan doesn\u2019t cut enough pollution are really just trying to make sure we don&#8217;t cut any pollution at all.<\/p>\n<p>They know that if they\u2019re able to intimidate the Congress into blocking these rules, it would make it substantially less likely that the U.S. and the rest of the world will move forward to a cleaner future.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s an easy test to tell if someone offering this complaint is sincere: If they\u2019re making suggestions to further strengthen the final rule, then they\u2019re actually interested in a solution.<\/p>\n<p>If not, they\u2019re just trying to keep America living in the past.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Under the proposed Clean Power Plan, plants must cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. (This blog originally appeared on EDF Voices) As we\u2019ve noted before, few opponents of the federal Clean Power Plan want to stand up and say they favor unlimited carbon pollution. So they\u2019re apt to frame &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4025,116,202,20,397],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carbon-pollution-standards","category-energy-technologies","category-greenhouse-gas-emissions","category-news","category-truth-squad"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Defenders of dirty power plants use doublespeak to shape debate - Climate 411<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2014\/06\/26\/defenders-of-dirty-power-plants-use-doublespeak-to-shape-debate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defenders of dirty power plants use doublespeak to shape debate - Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Under the proposed Clean Power Plan, plants must cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. 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