ELPC Receives American Bar Association's Award for Excellence
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ELPC Receives American Bar Association's Award for Excellence
Learn More December 01, 2014
For Immediate Release
Contact: David Jakubiak
ELPC Files Comments on U.S. EPA’s Clean Power Plan:
America’s Energy Future Lies in Efficiency, Wind and Solar;
Midwest Poised to be a Global Climate Leader
CHICAGO – America’s Midwest is positioned to lead in delivering climate change solutions powered by wind and solar energy and maximizing energy efficiency, the Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) said in comments filed today with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Monday marked the deadline for comments on the EPA’s landmark Clean Power Plan which is designed to reduce the carbon pollution from existing power plants by more than 30 percent by 2030.
“Six Midwest states account for 5 percent of global carbon pollution. We should lead with positive clean energy solutions to climate change problems here in America’s Heartland,” said Howard Learner, Executive Director at ELPC. “Those solutions are already being developed with wind and solar energy and with the rapid advancement of energy efficiency.”
Even greater carbon reductions can be achieved with state policies that foster the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency. For this reason, ELPC requests that U.S. EPA set stronger renewable energy targets based on growth in the last 5-6 years and stronger energy efficiency targets that are verifiable and transparent.
Addressing climate change is a priority in the Midwest because of the threat the changing climate poses to the region’s agriculture, its aging transportation and storm water infrastructure, and public health.
Wind power and solar energy are clean energy, but nuclear power generation that creates highly radioactive waste is not. ELPC requests eliminating “preserved nuclear capacity,” and asks that if this compliance option is upheld, then “EPA should require a very high showing by states that any ‘preserved’ nuclear power is both truly ‘at risk’ of early retirement, and, in fact, will be predominantly replaced by fossil-fuel generation.”
Learner said: “In this new century, we’ll power our economy with clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency that will create jobs, spur economic growth, and cut carbon pollution to address our climate change problems.”