Momentum For The Clean Power Plan Is Building

What do 13 Senators and Google have in common? They all want to strengthen the Clean Power Plan.

Earlier this week, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) led 11 Senators in calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strengthen its proposed Clean Power Plan in order to to achieve even greater reductions in carbon pollution.

The Sierra Club stands with Senators Merkley, Schatz,  Ben Cardin (D-MD), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in their call to strengthen the Clean Power Plan.

If done right, the Clean Power Plan will help states move toward a healthier, more just future by choosing efficiency and clean energy and by ending our reliance on dirty and dangerous fossil fuel-fired power plants all while creating a smooth transition for workers and communities.

In order for the Clean Power Plan to be successful, the Senators and the Sierra Club agree that it must achieve the level of emissions reductions that science calls for in order to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate disruption. It’s clear that we need to protect our planet against increasing pollution and against superstorms. By using current technology and market conditions, it is possible to deploy clean, renewable energy more aggressively to cut carbon pollution even further.

Cutting carbon pollution and increasing clean energy through the Clean Power Plan is good for our economy and good for our environment. Businesses like Google, Johnson Controls, and the North Face know that cutting carbon pollution is necessary if we want to minimize the economic costs of climate disruption -- of the destruction extreme weather leaves behind and of lost work days due to pollution-related health issues, such as asthma.

The Sierra Club applauds the EPA for making this historic move to protect American communities, but these Senators and businesses are right -- we need to take the plan a step further. We need to increase the plan’s carbon pollution reduction goals and unleash the power of renewables and energy efficiency. But we also need to ensure strong enforcement of the plan, avoid increased use of natural gas and dangerous, expensive nuclear power, prioritize environmental justice, and ensure a just economic and transition for American workers. By doing so, we can have a future where fossil fuels stay in the ground and where the effects of climate disruption are limited, all while making sure workers and families are protected on the path to a clean energy future.

To make sure your voice is heard and to stand up for our environment and our clean energy economy, you cancomment on the EPA’s supplemental proposed rule.

Want more information on the Clean Power Plan? Check out the Senators’letter to the EPA, the Sierra Club’sstatement on the Clean Power Plan, and thisinteractive map to see which companies are standing up for our economy and our climate.