In what has been dubbed “a historic step in the Obama administration’s fight against climate change”, President Barack Obama is set to unveil the Clean Power Plan establishing America’s first-ever national standards to limit carbon pollution from power plants, termed the single largest source of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
A fact-sheet released by the White House said the plan “sets flexible and achievable standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 — 9 per cent more ambitious than the proposal”.
In a video presentation ahead of the formal announcement, Obama called the plan “the biggest most important step we’ve ever taken to combat climate change”, noting: “Climate change is not a problem for another generation. Not anymore.”
“Power plants are the single biggest source (estimated at 40 per cent) of harmful carbon pollution that contributes to climate change. But until now, there have been no federal limits to the amount of that pollution that those plants can dump into the air,” he said.
Coal as a source accounted for 37 per cent of US electricity in 2012, compared to 30 per cent from natural gas, 19 per cent from nuclear power plants, 7 per cent from hydropower sources such as dams and 5 per cent from renewable sources such as wind and solar, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The Obama plan aims to enable the various US States to develop tailored implementation strategies to bring about significant public health benefits, create tens of thousands of jobs while ensuring grid reliability, and drive more aggressive investment in clean energy technologies, resulting in 30 per cent more renewable energy generation in 2030.