White House To Unveil Clean Power Plan Monday
The Obama Administration and the EPA have been working on a proposal they call the Clean Power Plan, and the White House has announced that the details of this plan will be revealed on Monday. White House official social media accounts have been promoting the plan, and in a video released Sunday, President Obama asked the public to put pressure on their own representatives to use more sustainable energy practices.
Though the details of the Clean Power Plan will be released Monday, there are a few things we know we can expect from it: incentives to use cleaner energy, more solar and wind and fewer fossil fuels, new EPA limits on the amount of carbon pollution power plants can create, and more calls on Congress to accept that the climate really is changing, and to do something more about it.
You can see the Clean Power Plan promotional video from President Obama below.
BREAKING: On Monday, @POTUS will release his #CleanPowerPlan—the biggest step we’ve ever taken to #ActOnClimate. https://t.co/BU1PF0wjUK
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 2, 2015
Convincing Congress to recognize climate change as a real thing that mankind is actually contributing to has been one of the president’s goals for some time, and it appears he’s using the Clean Power Plan to simultaneously work on the problems directly, and to nudge Congress into action. He certainly used the video to make a few pointed jabs at those who continue to deny it.
According to the White House site’s page on climate change, the Clean Power Plan will aim to reduce carbon pollution from power plants by 30 percent over the next 15 years. Since power plants are responsible for about one-third of carbon pollution, this is a big difference in overall output.
The Obama Administration has been working on this plan for some time now — it was initially proposed by the EPA in July of 2014, and there have been agreements with China, in which China also agrees to begin cutting greenhouse gas emmissions that affect the ozone layer, and to increase its use of zero-carbon energy sources. The U.S. has a current goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that in 2025, the emissions are 25-28 percent lower than in 2005.
We can’t condemn our kids to a planet that’s beyond fixing. It’s time to #ActOnClimate. #CleanPowerPlan http://t.co/GBSJ8hlIRD
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 2, 2015
The plan isn’t just a set of ideas politicians and environmentalists are foisting on the public without any input, either: they’ve talked to power companies and communities to learn what solutions are feasible and productive. The Clean Power Plan will be officially announced on Monday.
[Photo by: Alex Wong/Getty Images]
