President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan to be announced Monday will establish unprecedented pollution controls in the United States. Obama is expected to say that leaving the next generation a pollution-free and undamaged planet is a "moral obligation."
In a fact sheet on the new regulations released Sunday, the White House touted its new plan as "flexible and achievable."
The plan sets carbon pollution reduction goals for power plants but also allows states to "develop tailored implementation plans to meet those goals."
The White House says the plan will:
- "Reduce premature deaths from power plant emissions by nearly 90 percent in 2030 compared to 2005 and decrease the pollutants that contribute to the soot and smog and can lead to more asthma attacks in kids by more than 70 percent. The Clean Power Plan will also avoid up to 3,600 premature deaths, lead to 90,000 fewer asthma attacks in children, and prevent 300,000 missed work and school days.
- "Create tens of thousands of jobs while ensuring grid reliability;
- "Drive more aggressive investment in clean energy technologies than the proposed rule, resulting in 30 percent more renewable energy generation in 2030 and continuing to lower the costs of renewable energy.
- "Save the average American family nearly $85 on their annual energy bill in 2030, reducing enough energy to power 30 million homes, and save consumers a total of $155 billion from 2020-2030;
- "Give a head start to wind and solar deployment and prioritize the deployment of energy efficiency improvements in low-income communities that need it most early in the program through a Clean Energy Incentive Program; and
- "Continue American leadership on climate change by keeping us on track to meet the economy-wide emissions targets we have set, including the goal of reducing emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and to 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025."
