Support for Reducing Power Plant Carbon Pollution

Carbon pollution is the main contributor to global climate disruption and is linked to life-threatening air pollution like smog – making it a serious hazard to Americans’ health and future. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed limiting emissions from power plants. Doctors, nurses, scientists, and leading public health groups like the American Lung Association have testified that carbon emission causes smog pollution that triggers asthma attacks, damages and reduces the function of the lungs, and can cause heart attacks and even premature deaths. According to professional testimony, children and seniors are particularly susceptible to the health consequences of air pollution and climate disruption. Below are statements by Dan Lashof and David Doniger in the Natural Resource Defense Council’s (NRDC) Climate and Clean Air Program, and Kim Knowlton in NRDC’s Global Warming and Health Project:

Dan Lashof, program director of NRDC’s Climate & Clean Air program

“Power plants are America’s largest source of carbon pollution, so there is simply no question that carbon dioxide from power plants endangers public health and welfare. Given that, EPA is simply doing its job by moving forward with common-sense standards to limit carbon pollution standards from power plants. These standards are long overdue.

“Improving and finalizing this proposal is a critical step toward creating an electricity system we can all live with. After all, electricity customers are also breathers. We need a reliable electric system—but a system that destabilizes our climate is not something we can rely on.”

Kim Knowlton, senior scientist, Global Warming and Health Project

“Climate change is an urgent public health concern. Many Americans have had personal experiences with extreme weather in recent years that brought home some of the damaging effects and high costs of a changing climate. Many of these extreme events are influenced by climate change, which is loading the weather dice and contributing to some of the most harmful health conditions we face—including increased ozone pollution, lethal, extreme heat, floods and droughts.”

“To avoid the unmanageable effects of climate change, limiting carbon pollution is critical. Supporting the New Source Performance Standard places national limits on industrial carbon pollution and is a significant milestone to prevent more potentially disastrous health effects of climate change.”

David Doniger, policy director, Climate and Clean Air program

“The carbon pollution standard is another important step that EPA has taken under President Obama to clean up and modernize the nation’s most polluting sector: the power plants that provide our electricity.”

“Carbon pollution imposes staggering health costs by worsening dangerous air pollution and driving increasingly extreme weather. Power plants have long topped the list of industrial sources whose pollution endangers public health and welfare.

“Market realities have already driven decisions on new power plants away from coal. Power companies simply aren’t planning to build new coal plants due to the availability of low-cost natural gas, strong growth in wind and solar power, and big opportunities to improve energy efficiency.”

“The new standard only reinforces what most power company executives and investors already understand—that carbon pollution and climate change are serious concerns, and that if and when underlying market economics support a comeback for new coal-fired power plants, they will need to be designed to capture their carbon and keep it out of the air.”