The revised Clean Power Plan will seek to slash carbon emissions from the power sector by 32 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels, a 9 percent increase over a previous proposal, a senior White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity ahead of Monday’s official launch.
The regulation is aimed at ushering in a sweeping transformation of the U.S. electricity sector, encouraging an aggressive shift toward more renewable energy away from coal-fired electricity.
Industry groups and some lawmakers from states that have relied on coal-based energy have vowed to challenge the Clean Power Plan in the courts and through Congressional maneuvers, accusing the administration of a regulatory assault that will drive up energy prices.
The White House took a defiant stance, saying the release of the plan was “the starting gun for an all-out climate push” by the president and his cabinet.
“My administration will release the final version of America’s Clean Power Plan, the biggest, most important step we have ever taken to combat climate change,” Obama said in a video posted by the White House Sunday (August 2).
The plan will be central to the United States’ contribution to a United Nations agreement to tackle climate change. The Obama administration has vowed to play a leadership role in global climate talks in Paris later this year.
Each state will be required to submit a plan to the Environmental Protection Agency next year, spelling out how it will meet an emission-cutting goal assigned to it.
Five governors who have opposed the rule have already said they will not comply.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who is trying to use the climate issue as a wedge against Republican candidates with her own Clean Energy Challenge to boost the use of renewable power sources such as solar energy, praised Obama’s plan. “It’s a good plan, and as president, I’d defend it,” Clinton said in a release.