Carbon Pollution: An Urgent Threat from Coal
It's time to act now to stop carbon pollution. Carbon pollution is the main contributor to climate disruption, making extreme weather worse -- including more severe floods, widespread wildfires and record drought. It is also linked to life-threatening air pollution — such as the smog that can trigger asthma attacks.
Yet even though carbon pollution threatens our health, our economy, and our children’s future, we currently have no national protections on how much carbon can be released into our air by dirty power plants.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon pollution protections would limit the amount of carbon pollution that power plants can dump into our air. These safeguards would require energy companies to reduce their carbon pollution using technological innovation or to transition to cleaner sources of energy.
Coal and gas-fired power plants emit more than 2.3 billion metric tons per year of carbon pollution, approximately 40% of total U.S. energy-related carbon pollution.
By establishing strong carbon pollution protections, the EPA can clean up and modernize the way we power our country. These protections will ensure that our kids, our communities and America’s workforce are healthier, while also creating much-needed jobs and fighting climate disruption.