Clean Power Plan

The Clean Power Plan was an Obama administration policy aimed at combating anthropogenic climate change (global warming) that was first proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 2014. The final version of the plan was unveiled by President Obama on August 3, 2015. The 460-page rule (RIN 2060–AR33) titled 'Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources:Electric Utility Generating Units' was published in the Federal Register on October 23, 2015. The Obama administration designed the plan to lower the carbon dioxide emitted by power generators. The plan was widely expected to be eliminated under President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order on March 28, 2017 mandating the EPA to review the plan. On June 1, 2017, the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement. In October 2017, it was reported that the EPA under the Trump Administration was planning to end the Clean Power Plan. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced the formal process to change EPA rules and repeal the plan would begin on October 10, 2017.The standard federal regulatory procedures and potential legal challenges to implement or change a regulation would likely take up to two years. In May 2019, Administrator Andrew Wheeler, who had replaced Administer Scott Pruitt, announced plans to change the way the EPA calculates health risks of air pollution, resulting in the reporting of far fewer health-related deaths and making it easier to roll back the Clean Power Plan. Administrator Wheeler defended the change as a way to rectify inconsistencies in the current cost-benefit analyses used by the agency. The new plan will be known as the Affordable Clean Energy rule; it was hailed by industry representatives. The final version of the plan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electrical power generation by 32 percent by 2030, relative to 2005 levels. The plan is focused on reducing emissions from coal-burning power plants, as well as increasing the use of renewable energy, and energy conservation. White House officials also hoped that the plan would help persuade other countries that emit large amounts of carbon dioxide to officially pledge to reduce their emissions at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The plan will require individual states to meet specific standards with respect to reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. States are free to reduce emissions by various means, and must submit emissions reductions plans by September 2016, or, with an extension approval, by September 2018. If a state has not submitted a plan by then, the EPA will impose its own plan on that state. The EPA divided the country into three regions based on connected regional electricity grids to determine a state's goal. States are to implement their plans by focusing on three building blocks: increasing the generation efficiency of existing fossil fuel plants, substituting lower carbon dioxide emitting natural gas generation for coal powered generation, and substituting generation from new zero carbon dioxide emitting renewable sources for fossil fuel powered generation. States may use regionally available low carbon generation sources when substituting for in-state coal generation and coordinate with other states to develop multi-state plans. The EPA estimates the Clean Power Plan will reduce the pollutants that contribute to smog and soot by 25 percent, and the reduction will lead to net climate and health benefits of an estimated $25 billion to $45 billion per year in 2030. That includes the avoidance of 140,000 to 150,000 asthma attacks among children and 2,700 to 6,600 premature deaths. EPA projects that the plan will save the average American family $85 per year in energy bills in 2030, and it will save enough energy to power 30 million homes and save consumers $155 billion from 2020–2030. The plan would create 30 percent more renewable energy generation in 2030 and help to lower the costs of renewable energy. It also would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to the NRDC.