Local weather change disproportionately impacts our most susceptible communities. We want EPA to undertake the strongest doable limits on air pollution from energy crops in an effort to shield our area’s well being and environmental security.
Julian Harden | February 5, 2024
| Local weather Change, Vitality Effectivity, Georgia, Utilities
SACE strongly helps the EPA implementing the strongest doable pointers and requirements to scale back carbon air pollution from energy crops and shield the environment and public well being.
EPA is Finalizing New Energy Plant Carbon Requirements
In Could of 2023, the Environmental Safety Company (EPA) proposed new requirements and pointers to deal with carbon air pollution from gasoline and coal energy crops. The requirements goal to chop 600 million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2042. Now, EPA is working to finalize the foundations by April 2024. These new carbon requirements are a vital step in the suitable course: energy crops are one in every of our nation’s most vital sources of local weather air pollution, contributing to rising excessive climate occasions and endangering public well being, particularly right here within the Southeast, and particularly amongst our most susceptible communities.
SACE strongly helps the EPA implementing the strongest doable pointers and requirements to scale back carbon air pollution from energy crops, and in August 2023, we submitted feedback to EPA outlining our place.
Learn Our Feedback Right here
Robust laws on carbon emissions from energy crops may also help cut back air pollution and shield the environment and public well being. Robust requirements may also complement federal initiatives such because the Inflation Discount Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation (BIL) by serving to fight the local weather disaster on the nationwide stage and contributing to attaining the Biden administration’s targets of attaining 100% clear energy by 2035 and a net-zero emissions financial system by 2050.
The Southeast’s Climate Dilemma: Pushed by Energy Vegetation and Their Influence on Excessive Climate
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Burning fossil fuels comparable to coal and gasoline in energy crops releases poisonous air pollution and greenhouse gases; and these greenhouse gases in flip entice warmth like a blanket in our environment. The result’s hotter summers that engulf communities, particularly within the already-warm South, and trigger city warmth islands. Strategically decreasing carbon emissions from gasoline and coal energy crops might alleviate burdensome warmth whereas on the identical time bettering air high quality, resulting in more healthy communities.
Within the Southeast, communities are already grappling with the rising impression of utmost climate occasions, extensively attributed to local weather change: record-breaking heatwaves, hurricanes, and rainfall mark distressing traits, emphasizing the essential want for fast motion.
Current information concluding that 2023 was the most well liked yr on file across the globe and that the previous ten years comprise the ten hottest years on file make the urgency for fast motion much more obvious. 2023 additionally had the most billion-dollar climate and local weather disasters in U.S. historical past.
Right here within the Atlanta space, we skilled the second-hottest yr in 2023, with a mean temperature of two.3 levels above the 30-year norm. These alarming traits underscore the essential want for strong measures to deal with the extreme impacts of carbon emissions from energy crops. These emissions are a identified key contributor to the local weather disaster and the related excessive climate situations we’re more and more witnessing.
Disproportionate Influence on Susceptible Communities
The repercussions of local weather change and air pollution will not be evenly distributed. Black, Brown, and low-income communities bear a disproportionate burden, and are sometimes located amid air pollution hotspots and particularly susceptible to climate-related disasters. The inequitable distribution of environmental impacts exacerbates present disparities, making it crucial to deal with the broader environmental considerations and the particular vulnerabilities of marginalized teams. Recognizing and rectifying these disparities is essential to constructing a extra simply and resilient future for all.
Be a part of Us – Stand Up for Robust Requirements!
We at SACE are encouraging Southeast residents to signal onto the petition to President Biden to go huge with the forthcoming last energy plant carbon guidelines. Our communities want the strongest doable requirements to assist cut back the toll that the warming local weather is taking over us. Will you please add your title?
Signal The Petition Right here
The intense climate of 2023 made it clear that there is no such thing as a time to delay on taking robust motion to scale back dangerous energy plant air pollution. We want President Biden and his administration to behave with resolve and assist our communities transfer past the worst threats of the local weather disaster.
Be a part of us in constructing a sustainable and resilient Southeast – our actions at the moment form the long run for generations.