President Obama is taking his most aggressive action yet to
fight climate change with the Clean Power Plan, a new set of Environmental Protection Agency regulations that is "the biggest most important step we've ever taken to combat climate change," Obama said in a video released Saturday night.
Under the plan, the administration will require states to meet specific carbon emission reduction standards, based on their individual energy consumption. The plan also includes an incentive program for states to get a head start on meeting standards on early deployment of renewable energy and low-income energy efficiency.
"Power plants are the single biggest source of harmful carbon pollution that contributes to climate change," Obama said in the video. "Until now, there have been no federal limits to the amount of carbon pollution plants dump in the air."
According to studies, the plan will
save thousands of lives and create tens of thousands of jobs. But Republicans have already been fighting the regulations for months before they were officially proposed, going so far as to
go to court to block the
proposed rule, a request a panel of federal judges rejected because "We do not have authority to review proposed agency rules." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has urged the governors of every state to
refuse to comply with the rule.
And, of course, the Republican presidential candidates are striving to outdo one another in expressing overheated opposition to cleaning up power in the United States. Ted Cruz made clear the opposition plans—and the stakes for 2016—saying "The president’s lawless and radical attempt to destabilize the nation’s energy system is flatly unconstitutional and—unless it is invalidated by Congress, struck down by the courts, or rescinded by the next administration—will cause Americans’ electricity costs to skyrocket at a time when we can least afford it." You can bet that any Republican elected president would do just that, rescinding or simply refusing to implement the Clean Power Plan and promoting, not fighting, climate change.
7:37 AM PT: The White House has put out a detailed fact sheet on the plan.
