News Tip: Experts Available to Comment on Greenhouse Gas Rules for Power Plants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Contact: Erin McKenzie
(919) 613-3652
erin.mckenzie@duke.edu 

DURHAM, N.C. -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new U.S. power plants today.

Tim Profeta
Director of Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions
http://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/people/profeta

Jonas Monast
Jonas Monast, director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions
http://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/people/monast/

Whitepaper on new source performance standards: http://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/climate/primer-on-ghg-regulation-under-the-clean-air-act-nsps-rulemaking-process

Quotes
"This is an important first step in limiting greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector," said Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. "Fossil fuel-fired power plants are currently responsible approximately 40 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. Not only will this rule start tackling climate change, it may provide policy certainty to allow utilities to engage in long-term planning.” 

“We have to start tackling climate change in a meaningful way,” said Jonas Monast, director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. “The section of the Clean Air Act that governs new source performance standards allows for considerable flexibility. The Act provides the EPA an opportunity to achieve its environmental goals in a cost-effective manner.”

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