Subject: FW: ANNOUNCEMENT: The Clean Power Plan is here!
From: Byron Georgiou <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2015 08:16:02 -0700

Congratulations, John,

Your legacy as a worldwide leader in the fight against climate change has
been further cemented by this announcement today.

Take a moment to savor the critical contribution your advocacy has made in
convincing the President to take these steps.

Planet Earth and its almost 10 billion inhabitants thank you.

Byron

*Byron S. Georgiou, Chair and CEO*

*Xtreme Green Electric Vehicles*

*3010 East Alexander Road*

*North Las Vegas, NV 89030*

*702-870-0700 (office)*

*702-513-2575 (mobile)*

[email-masked] <[email-masked]>*

*www.xgev.com <http://www.xgev.com/>*

*From:* CEQ-Outreach [mailto:[email-masked]]
*Sent:* Monday, August 3, 2015 6:32 AM
*To:* CEQ-Outreach
*Subject:* ANNOUNCEMENT: The Clean Power Plan is here!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Today President Obama is unveiling the final version of the Clean Power Plan
<http://www2.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan> – the strongest action ever taken in
the United States to combat climate change. President Obama believes we
have a moral obligation to act by not leaving future generations a planet
that is damaged. While aiming to slash carbon emissions by a third by 2030,
this plan will also keep energy affordable and reliable, and support
innovation which will lead to a strong clean-energy economy.

You can participate and stay up to date with the latest on this historic
announcement:

·         *Watch *President Obama and Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Gina McCarthy announce the final plan at the White House by
tuning in to White House Live <https://www.whitehouse.gov/live> at 2:00pm
(EDT)

·         *Join *the EPA briefing call today at 5:45pm (EDT) to learn more
about the Clean Power Plan: Participant Dial-in Number: (877) 290-8017,
Conference ID#: 99292351

·         *Follow* and participate on social media using #ActOnClimate
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/actonclimate>

Thank you for your support and please let us know if you have any questions.

Best,

Angela Barranco

Office of Public Engagement

White House Council on Environmental Quality

*Executive Office of the President*

*White House Council on Environmental Quality*

Stay connected to the White House:

#ActOnClimate <%3ehttps:/twitter.com/hashtag/actonclimate%3c>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 3, 2015

*FACT SHEET: PRESIDENT OBAMA TO ANNOUNCE HISTORIC *

*CARBON POLLUTION STANDARDS FOR POWER PLANTS *

*The Clean Power Plan is a Landmark Action to Protect Public Health, Reduce
Energy Bills for Households and Businesses, Create American Jobs, and Bring
*

*Clean Power to Communities across the Country*

Today at the White House, President Obama and Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy will release the final Clean Power
Plan, a historic step in the Obama Administration’s fight against climate
change.

We have a moral obligation to leave our children a planet that’s not
polluted or damaged. The effects of climate change are already being felt
across the nation <http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/>. In the past three
decades, the percentage of Americans with asthma has more than doubled, and
climate change is putting those Americans at greater risk of landing in the
hospital. Extreme weather events – from more severe droughts and wildfires
in the West to record heat waves – and sea level rise are hitting
communities across the country. In fact, 14 of the 15 warmest years on
record have all occurred in the first 15 years of this century and last
year was the warmest year ever. The most vulnerable among us – including
children, older adults, people with heart or lung disease, and people
living in poverty – are most at risk from the impacts of climate change.
Taking action now is critical.

The Clean Power Plan establishes the first-ever national standards to limit
carbon pollution from power plants. We already set limits that protect
public health by reducing soot and other toxic emissions, but until now,
existing power plants, the largest source of carbon emissions in the United
States, could release as much carbon pollution as they wanted.

The final Clean Power Plan sets flexible and achievable standards to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, 9 percent
more ambitious than the proposal. By setting carbon pollution reduction
goals for power plants and enabling states to develop tailored
implementation plans to meet those goals, the Clean Power Plan is a strong,
flexible framework that will:

·         Provide significant public health benefits – The Clean Power
Plan, and other policies put in place to drive a cleaner energy sector,
will reduce premature deaths from power plant emissions by nearly 90
percent in 2030 compared to 2005 and decrease the pollutants that
contribute to the soot and smog and can lead to more asthma attacks in kids
by more than 70 percent. The Clean Power Plan will also avoid up to 3,600
premature deaths, lead to 90,000 fewer asthma attacks in children, and
prevent 300,000 missed work and school days.

·         Create tens of thousands of jobs while ensuring grid reliability;

·         Drive more aggressive investment in clean energy technologies
than the proposed rule, resulting in 30 percent more renewable energy
generation in 2030 and continuing to lower the costs of renewable energy.

·         Save the average American family nearly $85 on their annual
energy bill in 2030, reducing enough energy to power 30 million homes, and
save consumers a total of $155 billion from 2020-2030;

·         Give a head start to wind and solar deployment and prioritize the
deployment of energy efficiency improvements in low-income communities that
need it most early in the program through a Clean Energy Incentive Program;
and

·         Continue American leadership on climate change by keeping us on
track to meet the economy-wide emissions targets we have set, including the
goal of reducing emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and to
26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

*KEY FEATURES OF THE CLEAN POWER PLAN*

The final Clean Power Plan takes into account the unprecedented input EPA
received through extensive outreach, including the 4 million comments that
were submitted to the agency during the public comment period. The result
is a fair, flexible program that will strengthen the fast-growing trend
toward cleaner and lower-polluting American energy. The Clean Power Plan
significantly reduces carbon pollution from the electric power sector while
advancing clean energy innovation, development, and deployment. It ensures
the U.S. will stay on a path of long-term clean energy investments that
will maintain the reliability of our electric grid, promote affordable and
clean energy for all Americans, and continue United States leadership on
climate action. The Clean Power Plan:

Ø  *Provides Flexibility to States to Choose How to Meet Carbon
Standards: *EPA’s
Clean Power Plan establishes carbon pollution standards for power plants,
called carbon dioxide (CO2) emission performance rates. States develop and
implement tailored plans to ensure that the power plants in their state
meet these standards– either individually, together, or in combination with
other measures like improvements in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The final rule provides more flexibility in how state plans can be designed
and implemented, including: streamlined opportunities for states to include
proven strategies like trading and demand-side energy efficiency in their
plans, and allows states to develop “trading ready” plans to participate in
“opt in” to an emission credit trading market with other states taking
parallel approaches without the need for interstate agreements. All
low-carbon electricity generation technologies, including renewables,
energy efficiency, natural gas, nuclear and carbon capture and storage, can
play a role in state plans.

Ø  *More Time for States Paired With Strong Incentives for Early Deployment
of Clean Energy: *State plans are due in September of 2016, but states that
need more time can make an initial submission and request extensions of up
to two years for final plan submission.  The compliance averaging period
begins in 2022 instead of 2020, and emission reductions are phased in on a
gradual “glide path” to 2030. These provisions to give states and companies
more time to prepare for compliance are paired with a new Clean Energy
Incentive Program to drive deployment of renewable energy and low-income
energy efficiency before 2022.

Ø  *Creates Jobs and Saves Money for Families and Businesses: *The Clean
Power Plan builds on the progress states, cities, and businesses and have
been making for years. Since the beginning of 2010, the average cost of a
solar electric system has dropped by half and wind is increasingly
competitive nationwide. The Clean Power Plan will drive significant new
investment in cleaner, more modern and more efficient technologies,
creating tens of thousands of jobs. Under the Clean Power Plan, by 2030,
renewables will account for 28 percent of our capacity, up from 22 percent
in the proposed rule. Due to these improvements, the Clean Power Plan will
save the average American nearly $85 on their energy bill in 2030, and save
consumers a total of $155 billion through 2020-2030, reducing enough energy
to power 30 million homes.

Ø  *Rewards States for Early Investment in Clean Energy, Focusing on
Low-Income Communities: *The Clean Power Plan establishes a Clean Energy
Incentive Program that will drive additional early deployment of renewable
energy and low-income energy efficiency. Under the program, credits for
electricity generated from renewables in 2020 and 2021 will be awarded to
projects that begin construction after participating states submit their
final implementation plans. The program also prioritizes early investment
in energy efficiency projects in low-income communities by the Federal
government awarding these projects double the number of credits in 2020 and
2021. Taken together, these incentives will drive faster renewable energy
deployment, further reduce technology costs, and lay the foundation for
deep long-term cuts in carbon pollution. In addition, the Clean Energy
Incentive Plan provides additional flexibility for states, and will
increase the overall net benefits of the Clean Power Plan.

Ø  *Ensures Grid Reliability:* The Clean Power Plan contains several
important features to ensure grid reliability as we move to cleaner sources
of power. In addition to giving states more time to develop implementation
plans, starting compliance in 2022, and phasing in the targets over the
decade, the rule requires states to address reliability in their state
plans. The final rule also provides a “reliability safety valve” to address
any reliability challenges that arise on a case-by-case basis. These
measures are built on a framework that is inherently flexible in that it
does not impose plant-specific requirements and provides states flexibility
to smooth out their emission reductions over the period of the plan and
across sources.

Ø  *Continues U.S. Leadership on Climate Change: *The Clean Power Plan
continues United States leadership on climate change. By driving emission
reductions from power plants, the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas
emissions, the Clean Power Plan builds on prior Administration steps to
reduce emissions, including historic investments to deploy clean energy
technologies, standards to double the fuel economy of our cars and light
trucks, and steps to reduce methane pollution. Taken together these
measures put the United States on track to achieve the President’s
near-term target to reduce emissions in the range of 17 percent below 2005
levels by 2020, and lay a strong foundation to deliver against our
long-term target to reduce emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by
2025. The release of the Clean Power Plan continues momentum towards
international climate talks in Paris in December, building on announcements
to-date of post-2020 targets by countries representing 70 percent of global
energy based carbon emissions.

Ø  *Sets State Targets in a Way That Is Fair and Is Directly Responsive to
Input from States, Utilities, and Stakeholders**:* In response to input
from stakeholders, the final Clean Power Plan modifies the way that state
targets are set by using an approach that better reflects the way the
electricity grid operates, using updated information about the cost and
availability of clean generation technologies, and establishing separate
emission performance rates for all coal plants and all gas plants. .

Ø  *Maintains Energy Efficiency as Key Compliance Tool: *In addition to
on-site efficiency and greater are reliance on low and zero carbon
generation, the Clean Power Plan provides states with broad flexibility to
design carbon reduction plans that include energy efficiency and other
emission reduction strategies.  EPA’s analysis shows that energy efficiency
is expected to play a major role in meeting the state targets as a
cost-effective and widely-available carbon reduction tool, saving enough
energy to power 30 million homes and putting money back in ratepayers’
pockets.

Ø  *Requires States to Engage with Vulnerable Populations:* The Clean Power
Plan includes provisions that require states to meaningfully engage with
low-income, minority, and tribal communities, as the states develop their
plans. EPA also encourages states to engage with workers and their
representatives in the utility and related sectors in developing their
state plans.

Ø  *Includes a Proposed Federal Implementation Plan:* EPA is also releasing
a proposed federal plan today. This proposed plan will provide a model
states can use in designing their plans, and when finalized, will be a
backstop to ensure that the Clean Power Plan standards are met in every
state.

Since the Clean Air Act became law more than 45 years ago with bipartisan
support, the EPA has continued to protect the health of communities, in
particular those vulnerable to the impacts of harmful air pollution, while
the economy has continued to grow. In fact, since 1970, air pollution has
decreased by nearly 70 percent while the economy has tripled in size. The
Clean Power Plan builds on this progress, while providing states the
flexibility and tools to transition to clean, reliable, and affordable
electricity.

*BUILDING ON PROGRESS*

The Clean Power Plan builds on steps taken by the Administration, states,
cities, and companies to move to cleaner sources of energy. Solar
electricity generation has increased more than 20-fold since 2008, and
electricity from wind has more than tripled.  Efforts such as the following
give us a strong head start in meeting the Clean Power Plan’s goals:

o   50 states with demand-side energy efficiency programs

o   37 states with renewable portfolio standards or goals

o   10 states with market-based greenhouse gas reduction programs

o   25 states with energy efficiency standards or goals

Today’s actions also build on a series of actions the Administration is
taking through the President’s Climate Action Plan
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/cap_progress_report_final_w_cover.pdf>
to reduce the dangerous levels of carbon pollution that are contributing to
climate change, including:

·         *Standards for Light and Heavy-Duty Vehicles:* Earlier this
summer, the EPA and the Department of Transportation proposed the second
phase of fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for medium- and
heavy-duty vehicles, which if finalized as proposed will reduce 1 billion
tons of carbon pollution. The proposed standards build on the first phase
of heavy-duty vehicle requirements and standards for light-duty vehicles
issued during the President’s first term that will save Americans $1.7
trillion, reduce oil consumption by 2.2 million barrels per day by 2025,
and slash greenhouse gas emissions by 6 billion metric tons through the
lifetime of the program.

·         *Low Income Solar: *Last month, the White House announced a new
initiative to increase access to solar energy for all Americans, in
particular low-and moderate income communities, and build a more inclusive
workforce. The initiative will help families and businesses cut their
energy bills through launching a National Community Solar Partnership to
unlock access to solar for the nearly 50 percent of households and business
that are renters or do not have adequate roof space to install solar
systems and sets a goal to install 300 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy
in federally subsidized housing by 2020. Through this initiative housing
authorities, rural electric co-ops, power companies, and organizations in
more than 20 states across the country committed to put in place more than
260 solar energy projects and philanthropic and impact investors, states,
and cities are committed to invest $520 million to advance community solar
and scale up solar and energy efficiency for low- and moderate- income
households. The initiative also includes AmeriCorps funding to deploy solar
and create jobs in underserved communities and a commitment from the solar
industry to become the most diverse sector of the U.S. energy industry.

·         *Economy-Wide Measures to Reduce other Greenhouse Gases:* EPA and
other agencies are taking actions to cut methane emissions from oil and gas
systems, landfills, coal mining, and agriculture through cost-effective
voluntary actions and common-sense standards. At the same time, the U.S.
Department of State is working to slash global emissions of potent
industrial greenhouse gases, called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), through an
amendment to the Montreal Protocol; EPA is cutting domestic HFC emissions
through its Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program; and, the
private sector has stepped up with commitments to cut global HFC emissions
equivalent to 700 million metric tons of carbon pollution through 2025.

·         *Investing in Coal Communities, Workers, and Communities: * In
February, as part of the President’s FY 2016 budget, the Administration
released the POWER+ Plan to invest in workers and jobs, address important
legacy costs in coal country, and drive the development of coal technology.
The Plan provides dedicated new resources for economic diversification, job
creation, job training, and other employment services for workers and
communities impacted by layoffs at coal mines and coal-fired power plants;
includes unprecedented investments in the health and retirement security of
mineworkers and their families and the accelerated clean-up of hazardous
coal abandoned mine lands; and provides new tax incentives to support
continued technology development and deployment of carbon capture, utilization,
and sequestration technologies.

·         *Energy Efficiency Standards:* DOE set a goal of reducing carbon
pollution by 3 billion metric tons cumulatively by 2030 through energy
conservation standards issued during this Administration. DOE has already
finalized energy conservation standards for 29 categories of appliances and
equipment, as well as a building code determination for commercial
buildings. These measures will also cut consumers' annual electricity bills
by billions of dollars.

·         *Investing in Clean Energy:* In June the White House announced
more than $4 billion in private-sector commitments and executive actions to
scale up investment in clean energy innovation, including launching a new
Clean Energy Impact Investment Center at the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) to make information about energy and climate programs at DOE and
other government agencies accessible and more understandable to the public,
including to mission-driven investors.

*###*