New Rule Signals an End to Dirty Power Plants

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Environment Georgia

Atlanta, GA – On the heels of a summer full of extreme down pours proceeded by extreme drought in Georgia, the third largest wildfire in California history and devastating, record-breaking floods in Colorado, the Obama administration proposed a major new rule today to curb the carbon pollution spewing from power plants that fuels global warming. Scientists warn that without major reductions in carbon pollution, extreme weather will become even more frequent and severe.

Power plants are America’s largest single source of carbon pollution, and today’s rule would place the first ever national limits on carbon pollution from power plants.

“If we want a safer climate and future for our kids, we can’t keep letting dirty power plants pollute,” said, Jennette Gayer, State Advocate for Environment Georgia “President Obama has put his foot down in the fight against global warming and effectively said: ‘No new dirty power plants.’

The proposed rule represents the first major benchmark in the implementation of President Obama’s climate plan unveiled in June. The President’s action enjoys broad support – Americans submitted more than 3.2 million comments in support of carbon limits on power plants in the last 18 months. Hundreds of elected officials, business leaders, and public health organizations have joined the call for limiting carbon pollution from the power sector.

A recent report from Environment Georgia Research & Policy Center found that a large portion of America’s carbon pollution comes from a small number of the dirtiest plants. For example, if the nation’s 50 most carbon-polluting power plants were a sovereign nation, they would emit more carbon than all but 6 other nations on Earth. The nation’s  biggest carbon polluter –Plant Scherer – emits as much global warming pollution as 4.4 million passenger vehicles.

In addition to being home to the single largest carbon pollution emitter in the country Georgia also has the dubious distinction of being one of the few states where power companies are working to build new coal plants with no controls for their carbon emissions. The fate of Plant Washington, a plant proposed by Power4Georgians in Sandersville, GA, is in question.

“Today’s announcement is a strong signal that coal power, without carbon pollution controls, is a thing of the past,” said Gayer.

The Obama administration is expected to propose a rule to limit carbon from existing power plants by June 2014, and to finalize that rule the following year.

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Environment Georgia is a citizen-based, environmental advocacy organization working toward a cleaner, greener, healthier future.

www.EnvironmentGeorgia

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