As the new legislative session kicks off, many of us are working with concerned citizens to redouble our effort to do everything within reason to combat climate change and protect the health of our citizens.
Our commitment starts with supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan, introduced in 2014. The proposal sets the first-ever federal limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants, mitigating the hazardous effects of carbon pollution on our environment and on public health.
The Clean Power Plan will cut carbon pollution 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. These updated standards for existing power plants are projected to prevent up to 4,000 premature deaths and 100,000 asthma attacks in the first year of implementation alone, and would help avoid up to 6,600 premature deaths and 150,000 asthma attacks in 2030.
Cleaning up our carbon pollution will have a positive and immediate impact on public health, especially for higher-risk populations, including those who suffer from chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, or other respiratory illnesses.
Children and low-income families are disproportionately affected by climate change and its impacts. Children’s lungs are still developing and therefore have a greater risk from increased smog and other climate-fueled pollution, and low-income families often live much closer to sources of air pollution that increase their direct exposure to pollutants. Cutting our carbon pollution will protect the health of these most vulnerable groups and of our state and nation at large.
Cutting carbon pollution is also beneficial to our economy. Climate change costs are gobbling up a huge and growing chunk of taxpayer dollars. The Clean Power Plan, which fights the climate change that fuels wildfires and other weather-related disasters, has the potential to save billions of dollars for American taxpayers who get stuck paying for cleanup and rebuilding after these disasters. In addition, the proposed plan will shrink electricity bills through energy efficiency investments and also has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of new energy efficiency jobs.
The EPA has created a plan that defends public health from the harmful effects of breathing dirty air, and has devised the plan to give states the flexibility they need for implementation. This is not a one-size-fits-all policy. The Clean Power Plan represents a set of state targets with flexibility as to meet those standards.
Fortunately, Colorado’s commitment to renewable energy has already put our state in good position to meet the proposed EPA standards. And there is broad public support in the state and across the nation for action to fight climate change.
A poll from Hart Research Associates found that in late 2014, 68 percent of Colorado voters said they favor the EPA’s plan to limit carbon emissions from power plants. Further, a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and Yale University found that a majority of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, said they support taking action on carbon pollution. Bipartisan majorities also said they believe environmental protections “improve economic growth and provide new jobs” over the long term.
Our state leaders should be supportive of federal climate action because it is helpful in terms of both public health protection and also in terms of economic opportunity – in addition to being broadly supported by our constituents. The Clean Power Plan can be implemented by Colorado and it provides health protections and economic benefits for our communities. We have no time to waste. The start of the legislative session provides a perfect opportunity for us to take action on climate now.
State Rep. Max Tyler represents House District 23 in Lakewood. Anna McDevitt is a campaign organizer for Environment Colorado.
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