Good news — the EPA has announced limits on the amount of carbon new power plants are allowed to emit.
On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced updated draft rules setting a limit on the amount of carbon dioxide that new power plants can emit. As EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the National Press Club Friday morning, these are the “first uniform national limits on carbon pollution for new plants.” Currently, CO2 is totally unregulated from new and existing power plants.
“We all know this is not just about melting glaciers,” McCarthy said. “This is one of the most significant public health threats of our time.” [...]
Some worried that the updated rules would be weakened by the revisions, but as Daniel J. Weiss, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress said, the rules “will ensure that we will not build any more coal-fired power plants that spew unlimited amounts of carbon pollution.”
I’m glad McCarthy pointed out that this is not just about climate change.
Those who live near coal plants have a much higher chance of suffering from a wide range of health issues and regulating carbon emissions will reduce healthcare costs.