Talking Points
EPA’s CLEAN POWER PLAN
Docket ID# OAR-2013-0602
OVERVIEW
On June 2nd, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new safeguards for
existing power plants that will reduce air pollution by almost one third in the coming
years. This rule will finally set limits on the carbon pollution coming from the nation’s power
plants, the single largest source of global warming pollution in the country.
The new safeguards will help usher in clean energy solutions like improved efficiency
and renewable energy. By requiring a 30% reduction in carbon pollution from power plants
by 2030, the standards will create a dynamic move toward cleaner energy.
As people of faith called to care for God’s people and Creation, especially the most
vulnerable, we have a moral obligation to address the profound impacts of the way we
produce and use energy. In addition to protecting our climate, curbing pollution from power
plants offers many important benefits, including saving lives and reducing health risks to
those suffering from heart disease and respiratory ailments such as asthma.
HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY POINTS
 We have a moral obligation to act to reduce carbon pollution

We have a sacred responsibility to leave our children and future generations
with a sustainable environment and a safe climate

Communities all over America are already being harmed by carbon pollution
from power plants. Those who are most vulnerable – children, the elderly,
low-income people who cannot move away from the pollution, and people
with asthma and heart trouble -- are suffering the most.

Carbon pollution fuels global warming, which triggers more asthma attacks
and respiratory disease, worsens air quality, and contributes to more frequent,
destructive, costly and deadly extreme weather events.

For the first time ever, the EPA has proposed national limits on carbon
pollution from power plants, our country's single largest source of the heattrapping pollution that causes climate change. Setting limits on carbon
pollution from power plants is a reasonable and essential step to address
climate change

We have an obligation to protect our children and future generations from the
impacts of climate change by addressing its main cause: carbon pollution
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from power plants. The EPA’s Clean Power Plan does just that, drawing on
the strength and ingenuity of American innovation to slash dangerous carbon
pollution being dumped into our air while driving investment in energy
efficiency and clean energy that will power the 21st century. The Clean Power
Plan means we will never have to choose between healthy communities and
a healthy economy.

Power plants are responsible for 40% of the carbon pollution in the United
States, our single largest source.

While we already set limits for mercury, arsenic and lead, polluters are taking
advantage of a loophole allowing them to dump unlimited carbon pollution into
our air, fueling climate change and putting our health at risk.

The EPA plan is a sensible, cost-effective plan that provides flexibility while
reducing carbon pollution and promoting efficiency and clean energy.

EPA has developed a flexible approach that allows for significant emissions
reductions at low cost.

EPA does not prescribe how a state should meet its goal. Instead, EPA sets a
state-specific goal and each state develops its plans and policy approaches to
meet the target.

EPA estimates the rule will reduce our carbon pollution (CO2) 30% below our
2005 levels by the year 2030.

The proposal will also cut pollution that leads to soot and smog by over 25
percent in 2030.

The Clean Power Plan will lead to climate and health benefits worth an
estimated $55 billion to $93 billion in 2030, including avoiding 2,700 to 6,600
premature deaths and 140,000 to 150,000 asthma attacks in children.

EPA projects that the Clean Power Plan will continue to increase energy
efficiency and reduce growth in demand for electricity. Nationally, this means
that, in 2030 when the plan is fully implemented, electricity bills would be
expected to be roughly 8 percent lower than they would have been without
the actions in state plans. That would save Americans about $8 on an
average monthly residential electricity bill, savings they wouldn’t see without
the states’ efforts under this rule.

This state-by-state approach has been used repeatedly to successfully cut
pollution under the Clean Air Act.

Additional reductions can be achieved by setting even more aggressive
renewable energy and energy efficiency goals
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