Carbon pollution limits in 2014 were a central part of President Barack Obama’s climate agenda. This post preserves the Natural Resources Defense Council’s response to his State of the Union address and its call for federal limits on power-plant carbon emissions.
NRDC Backed Limits on Power-Plant Carbon Pollution
NRDC’s Beinecke: “We Must Move Quickly”
WASHINGTON (January 28, 2014) — The following is a statement on President Obama’s State-of-the-Union address tonight from Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Power plants account for 40 percent of our carbon pollution, and President Obama tonight underscored why we must move quickly to impose limits on them, as we do now for other pollutants.
“His Climate Action Plan points the way to using the Clean Air Act to allow even our most coal-dependent states to cut their emissions without economic impact.”
Source: NRDC Washington DC Office
The Debate Focused on EPA Authority and Power Plants
Supporters argued that Clean Air Act standards were necessary to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from the power sector. Opponents raised concerns about costs, federal authority and impacts on coal-dependent regions.
This post reflects NRDC’s position at the time rather than an independent endorsement.
Conclusion
The 2014 debate showed how central power-plant rules had become to U.S. climate policy. It also foreshadowed years of legal and political conflict over federal carbon regulation.
Source: NRDC statement quoted in the original post and contemporaneous federal climate-policy materials.
