“For the Clean Power Plan to be a success, it must achieve the level of emissions reductions that the science calls for to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.”
WASHINGTON –-(ENEWSPF)–December 9, 2014. Today, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) led eleven Senators in calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strengthen its proposed Clean Power Plan to achieve even greater reductions of carbon pollution. In the first major congressional call to further strengthen the plan from its existing targets, the Senators emphasized that it is essential for the plan to hit the target levels of emissions reductions necessary to avoid the most harmful effects of climate change.
Merkley and Schatz were joined by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
In a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, the Senators wrote: “The Clean Power Plan will be the single most significant step this country has ever taken to tackle greenhouse gas emissions in the power sector, so it is essential that it be done right. For the Clean Power Plan to be a success, it must achieve the level of emissions reductions that the science calls for to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.”
The Senators emphasized that current technology and market conditions make it possible to deploy renewable energy more aggressively to cut carbon pollution even further from the first draft of the Clean Power Plan. In a detailed appendix to the letter, the Senators laid out specific areas within the proposal where the draft rule can be strengthened.
The text of the letter can be found here.
Source: merkley.senate.gov
