Publication of EPA’s Clean Power Plan Will Spur Attacks, But It Will Be Good for Consumers and the Climate

Statement of David Arkush, Managing Director, Public Citizen’s Climate Program

Note: Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan was published in the Federal Register. The plan requires existing power plants to curb carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.

The Clean Power Plan is a critical step to curbing climate change. With its publication in the Federal Register, dirty energy companies and their political allies will now launch a new round of attacks – filing lawsuits and attempting to overturn the rule in Congress.

Those attacks are a shameful affront to the U.S. people and to the world. The Clean Power Plan will lower Americans’ electricity bills by spurring improvements in energy efficiency, save thousands of lives by cleaning up the air and mitigate catastrophic climate change, which threatens untold damage to our economy, our health and our very society.

In truth, we need much stronger action on climate, much faster. But the Clean Power Plan is a good start. Opponents should be ashamed of the harm they are willing to inflict to boost the short-term profits of dying fossil fuel companies.