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The Clean Power Plan will not be the only way

Nov. 17, 2018 by Elizabeth Duran

The Clean Power Plan will not be the only way to reduce the emissions of coal. An even more ambitious proposal, the Clean Energy Investment Bank, would create a new fund to purchase fossil fuels from fossil fuels and reduce carbon pollution from power plants.

"No one has ever done more to reduce emissions of fossil fuels than President Obama did in 2012," wrote Michael T. Johnson, director of the Center for Competitive Energy Research, in a recent article. "The Clean Power Plan has made our economy more resilient than ever before, and our energy security is on the line."

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The Clean Power Plan has also been criticized by Democratic critics of clean energy, many of whom argue that its provisions are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and power plants that are not polluting, and to create a national clean energy system for the U.S. The EPA's proposed rule would require states to have their emissions under control through 2030.

But opponents like to believe that the Clean Power Plan is a policy based on science, not on politics. "If the Clean Power Plan becomes law, we will be able to cut greenhouse gas emissions from our power system," said Charles E. Hartmann, executive director of the Coalition to Cut Carbon. "But if that means that we are not able to put more carbon dioxide in the air, and we are creating more of that air to meet a new target, then we are doing a disservice to our country."

The Clean Power Plan's opponents don't believe it can be repealed. "If the Clean Power Plan becomes law, and people are paying attention," said Fred Buehler, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, "then it will be the end of what was a long time a dream."

One such supporter of the Clean Power Plan is David C. Wright, chairman of the Energy Policy Committee; he is also a member of the board of directors of the Cato Institute, which is one of the most conservative think tanks in America. Wright was the co-chairman of the American Action Forum in 2007, an advocacy group for conservatives who advocate for reducing emissions through a more carbon-neutral energy system.

"That's something that's not going to pass the smell test," Wright told me last year, after a panel discussion about the Clean Power Plan's environmental and social impacts. "You can't really talk about it that way. It's a big red herring."