The NAACP today commended the Environmental Protection agency for announcing updated standards that will impose the first-ever limits on greenhouse gas emissions from newly built fossil fuel based power plants.
“This is another major step forward to protect future generations from deadly pollution,” said Jacqueline Patterson, Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program. “Forty percent of all energy-related emissions of greenhouse gases in 2012 came from power plants, and most of that came from coal-burning power plants. This pollution has the most harmful effect on low-income communities and communities of color.”
The new rules are the first step in President Barack Obama’s climate change package that he announced in June. The plan aims to reduce domestic carbon dioxide emissions by 17 percent between 2005 and 2020.
“We will continue to support these sensible standards in the face of industry opposition until a strong rule is finalized,” Patterson continued. “We will also stand by the administration as they enact other long-overdue measures to mitigate climate change, which causes disproportionate devastation in so many different ways. The lives of our children depend on it.”
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