The EPA has proposed historic standards on carbon dioxide from new coal/gas power plants. The standards are open for public comment and are under assault by the fossil fuels industry. Please submit a comment today.
You can copy the text of my letter below and email it to the EPA at:
email: a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov
Even if you simply write a one-sentence email with the docket number and the words “I support strong carbon emissions standards” that will help.
————————————————————
Attn: Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0495.
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing these comments in response to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0495, which presents EPA’s 2013 Proposed Carbon Pollution Standard for New Power Plants.
I would like to express my strong support for the strongest possible standards on carbon pollution for both new and existing point sources of carbon pollution including coal and gas-fired power plants.
Carbon pollution from fossil fuel-powered generation results in significant and growing costs to society by contributing to climate change, and these costs should be internalized in the business of generating power from coal and gas. Absent strong carbon standards, polluters avoid a significant cost of doing business, resulting in distortions of power markets which make coal and gas look much cheaper than they actually are. These distortions hamper the growth of clean sources of electricity like solar and wind, result in overconsumption of coal and gas, and leave society holding a very large tab.
Opponents of carbon pollution standards point to the expense of making polluters capture these costs, which is tantamount to arguing that polluters should not pay their actual cost of doing business. If capturing carbon pollution from coal plants is very expensive, that is precisely because coal power is in fact very expensive. Without carbon pollution standards, those same high costs are simply borne by society instead of polluters.
I also urge the EPA to tighten the proposed standards on natural gas powered plants. While gas is cleaner than coal, allowing any polluter to continue to externalize a large portion of the cost of doing business simply pushes those costs onto society while distorting energy market prices.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
[Your name]
