Senate Democrats rallied Thursday against the Trump administration’s plan to gut President Barack Obama’s signature climate change initiative, predicting the move would harm the economy, create more pollution, and even kill people.
“This decision kills people,” Jeff Merkley of Oregon said as part of a series of planned speeches on the Senate floor. “Aren’t we here to make Americans stronger and better? Not to kill Americans, not to put Americans in the hospital. Yet, the president’s plan does exactly that. Let’s do right for Americans and reject this dirty power plan that will hurt us in every way possible.”
The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to weaken the Clean Power Plan regulating carbon emissions from coal plants could lead to between 470 and 1,400 premature deaths each year by 2030 compared to the Obama plan, the agency’s own findings say.
That’s because the weaker rule, announced Tuesday, would lead to a potential rise in soot and other particulate matter that contribute to health issues like asthma and lung disease.
President Barack Obama’s 2015 Clean Power Plan, which was never implemented because of a Supreme Court stay, required states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
The rewritten regulation proposed by the EPA does not set a specific target to reduce carbon emissions, and gives states the authority to write rules. It regulates power plants individually, encouraging utilities to run them more efficiently, instead of pushing for broad changes to the U.S. electricity mix, as the Clean Power Plan would have done.
“No matter what the EPA calls this proposal, it doesn’t achieve affordable or clean energy and definitely doesn’t address change,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. “The EPA’s dirty power plan is not a climate change replacement [plan]. It is a retreat. It is a retreat from EPA’s most basic responsibility to ensure breathable air, to usher in economic progress, and tackle the greatest environmental challenge we face on this planet.”
Even with a more limited scope, the EPA predicts power sector emissions to fall 33 to 34 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 — meeting the target that Obama set — mostly because of market changes that has seen cheaper natural gas and renewables replace dirtier coal.
But senators said the Trump plan would have a negligible impact on planet-warming carbon emissions because it could encourage utilities to keep running some coal plants that would otherwise retire.
“This plan is extending the life of dirty polluting plants and shortening the life of real people,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine.
Senate Democrats said the U.S is ceding leadership on climate change to countries such as China, which has ambitious renewable energy and electrification targets.
The U.S. is far away from reaching its commitment to the Paris climate agreement that Trump has rejected. The nonbinding deal was designed to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which many scientists say the world would see irreversible effects of climate change.
“The American economy will take a whack by our failure to win a transition to a low carbon economy,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. “We are all in this together, and are all made losers by this ridiculous rule.”
Whitehouse acknowledged Senate Democrats are helpless to do anything to stop Trump’s EPA from implementing its plan. But he took solace in predicting the rule would be struck down in court, because he said the administration did not provide a compelling reason to weaken rules targeting carbon emissions.
“Our best hope for this phone baloney power plan is it’s not likely to last very long,” Whitehouse said. “It’s not likely to survive judicial scrutiny.”
