New York Governor Urges US Environmental Protection Agency Not To Abandon Clean Power Plan

NEW YORK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st August, 2018) The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should reconsider its decision to abandon the proposed replacement of the Clean Power Plan that gives each US state the opportunity to design its own most cost-effective path toward cleaner energy sources, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wrote in a letter to EPA's Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Monday.

"The proposed plan would be a mistake any way you look at it. I urge you to change course, for everyone's sake," Cuomo said.

The Clean Power Plan, announced by the Obama administration in August 2015, set the first-ever limits on carbon pollution from US power plants, which it said was the largest source of the pollution in the country driving climate change.

The EPA issued the final Clean Power Plan under the Clean Air Act and set flexible and achievable standards that give each US state the opportunity to design its own most cost-effective path toward cleaner energy sources away from fossil fuels. The Clean Power Plan would cut by 2030 the electric sectors carbon pollution by 32 percent nationally relative to 2005 levels, according to EPA projections.

Cuomo said in the letter the proposal to strip the Clean Power Plan would play into the hands of the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists.

The governor noted in the letter that 2018 is the fourth-warmest year on record in a row - a cause for concern regarding the plan to roll back clean power regulations.

"In a summer of raging wildfires and extreme storms, following the worst hurricane year on record, the Trump administration is inexplicably failing to protect Americans from a serious threat to our health and security," Cuomo said.

Cuomo mentioned efforts by New York State to reduce its fossil fuel footprint, including the plan to close all coal-fired power plants in the state by 2020 and the goal to reduce emissions 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050.

Recently, Cuomo announced $1.4 billion in investments to dozens of clean energy projects around New York State.