Clean Power Plan Would Save Thousands of Lives Each Year
Clean Power Plan Would Save Thousands of Lives Each Year – The Obama administration has taken great pains to frame its Clean Power Plan as an immediate solution for an immediate, quantifiable problem. And now, Scientific American reports that the key takeaway of the first independent, peer-reviewed study on the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) regulation’s public health benefits was likely music to the administration’s ears.
One of the study’s co-authors says that when the power sector begins shifting away from coal-fired power plants and toward energy sources with smaller carbon footprints, like natural gas, wind and solar, the health benefits would begin materializing immediately. He said, “Really, we are talking about a matter of days to weeks.”
The health benefits would come from reduced sulfur dioxide and other emissions, as opposed to reduced carbon dioxide. The study found that energy efficiency programs and imposition of a $43-per-ton price on carbon dioxide emissions would reduce emissions to prevent 3,000 premature deaths from heart attacks, respiratory diseases and other pollution-related diseases.
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