As the Obama Administration gives a final review to its proposal for new carbon-pollution standards, EPA is working on its ground game to build public support. That included a stopover in Cleveland this week by the head of EPA. Ideastream’s Anne Glausser reports.
The landmark regulations to be publicly unveiled in June are central to President Obama’s climate-change agenda. They will tighten carbon limits for existing power plants and outline requirements that states must implement to limit greenhouse gases.
Speaking at a Cleveland Clinic gathering, Gina McCarthy, the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, spoke of the urgency for action and made a connection between natural disasters, carbon emissions and climate change. "We spent in 2012 in the U.S. government, $120 billion on disaster response. That’s from floods, that’s from droughts, that’s from Hurricane Sandy…these are challenges that impact directly people’s lives, their well-being, as well as regional economies, so these are significant. But we also have climate change basically acerbating issues like ozone, because it raises temperature which is part of a factor that contributes to the formation of ozone," she said.
McCarthy says the new carbon limits will reduce air pollution overall and help bring down the number of illnesses associated with it.
It’s unclear exactly how aggressive the administration’s standards would be. Final regulations are scheduled for next year, after public comment.