I was shocked when I read Jeff Holmstead statement that said, “All the companies I deal with are concerned about greenhouse gases. And pretty much all of them think the Clean Power Plan is not a lawful way of doing this.” What also isn’t lawful is the amount of deaths per year due to air pollution that the companies contribute to. So to cut carbon emissions to save lives and the planet shouldn’t be such a problem but to the companies, money is more important.
Some people see things differently and see that the cost of changing is too great. Coal burning industries contribute to excessive green house gas emissions, while natural gas emits half the carbon emissions than coal when used to generate electricity. This change isn’t costly and industries have yet to switch. The government should intervene and make changes when necessary. The temperature is going to rise two degrees at the rate we’re going? OK, let’s implement a change and cut green house gas emissions. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. There are many opponents to changing traditional coal industries. The government should also intervene in the market place because if market forces continue to pick winners and losers, when will clean and renewable energy sources be able to provide more energy without help?
Obama’s Clean Power Plan aims to cut emissions 32% by 2030. The plan aims to limit emissions of power plants because they are the biggest contributor to carbon emissions. But as a society, we can limit our emissions as well. Automobiles are very very very very fuel inefficient. The U.S.’s second largest greenhouse gas emissions is transportation. About 86% of fuel that is pumped into the tank of an automobile is used for something other than driving. Only 14% of the fuel put into car is actually used to move the car. More fuel efficient automobiles need to be considered to cut down on air pollution, and we can take mass transit to help (and mass transit needs to become better in general, too).
The EPA should impose regulations and restrictions when greenhouse gas emissions are out of hand and become a hazard to society, as the EPA did when they proposed the Clean Power Plan. There needs to be a limitation on emissions, and a movement towards natural gas and renewable energies in order to have cleaner air that people are supposed to have, and to limit more extreme weather events, because we ignored climate change for so long that avoiding it is impossible.
I think that you are right but there are many people who believe that government should not intervene. In some ways, it is a question of ideological belief — what is the proper role of the state — as much as science.