14 DAY TRIAL // This past June 2, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States announced that, under a new Clean Power Plan proposal, power plants operating in the country were to cut their carbon emissions by 30% by the year 2030.
On its website, the Agency details that this targeted drop in carbon emissions originating from the United States' energy sector is in comparison to a 2005 baseline and will yield major benefits in terms of safeguarding the environment and public health.
Thus, the Environmental Protection Agency expects that this latest Clean Power Plan will provide climate and public health benefits amounting to a whopping $93 billion (approximately €68.3 billion).
More precisely, the Agency maintains that its Clean Power Plan proposal has the potential to avoid 6,600 premature deaths, 150,000 asthma attacks in children, and some 490,000 missed work or school days reported in the United States on a yearly basis.
Given the fact that the Clean Power Plan also takes into account issues such as energy efficiency, the proposal is likely to also translate into an 8% drop in electricity bills in the United States, specialists with the Agency maintain.
Lastly, the new standards concerning the amount of pollution the country's power sector can produce yearly are expected to lead to an impressive 25% drop in particle, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide emissions over 2005 levels.
“Climate change, fueled by carbon pollution, supercharges risks to our health, our economy, and our way of life,” explains Gina McCarthy, the Environmental Protection Agency's current administrator.
“We don't have to choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment--our action will sharpen America’s competitive edge, spur innovation, and create jobs.”
“By leveraging cleaner energy sources and cutting energy waste, this plan will clean the air we breathe while helping slow climate change so we can leave a safe and healthy future for our kids,” Gina McCarthy goes on to add.
Presently, power plants up and running across the United States are a major source of environmental pollution. Specifically, it is estimated that such facilities are to blame for over 30% of the country's overall greenhouse gas emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency expects that, once implemented, the Clean Power Plan will help ensure that these facilities green up their working agenda to a considerable extent and are no longer climate change and global warming contributors and a threat to public health.
Interestingly enough, this proposal hit the public eye shortly after the United States Global Change Research Program delivered a report saying that climate change was already affecting every region in the country.