Clean Power Plan

Stanford professor Mark Z. Jacobson proposes powering the world with wind, water, and solar (WWS) pictured above in place of fossil fuel plants (coal, oil, and natural gas).

The Clean Power Plan is a policy aimed at combating anthropogenic climate change (global warming) that was first proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in June 2014, under the administration of US President Barack Obama. The final version of the plan was unveiled by President Obama on August 3, 2015.

The final version of the Clean Power Plan is the first to set a national limit on carbon dioxide pollution produced from power plants. The plan would lower the carbon dioxide emitted by power generators.

The Clean Power Plan is designed to strengthen the trend of clean energy by setting standards for power plants and goals for states to cut their carbon dioxide pollution.

The final version of the plan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electrical power generation by 32 percent within twenty-five years relative to 2005 levels. The plan is focused on reducing emissions from coal-burning power plants, as well as increasing the use of renewable energy, and energy conservation. White House officials also hoped that the plan would help persuade other countries that emit large amounts of carbon dioxide to officially pledge to reduce their emissions at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The plan will require individual states to meet specific standards with respect to reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. States are free to reduce emissions by various means, and must submit emissions reductions plans by September 2016, or, with an extension approval, by September 2018. If a state has not submitted a plan by then, the EPA will impose its own plan on that state.

The EPA divided the country into three regions based on connected regional electricity grids to determine a state's goal. States are to implement their plans by focusing on three building blocks: increasing the generation efficiency of existing fossil fuel plants, substituting lower carbon dioxide emitting natural gas generation for coal powered generation, and substituting generation from new zero carbon dioxide emitting renewable sources for fossil fuel powered generation.

States may use regionally available low carbon generation sources when substituting for in-state coal generation and coordinate with other states to develop multi-state plans.

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Wikipedia