THOUSANDS OF LIVES SAVED: That’s what the Obama administration’s landmark climate rule for power plants could mean, researchers said Monday.
If the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rule is finalized and implemented in a way that combines a shift toward cleaner fuels with energy efficiency and demand reduction, Harvard University and Syracuse University researchers found that it’s likely to prevent 3,500 deaths due to reduced air pollution.
It’s the first peer-reviewed scientific research into the proposed regulation, and it could give a big boost to the Obama administration and the rule’s supporters.
{mosads}”If EPA sets strong carbon standards, we can expect large public health benefits from cleaner air almost immediately after the standards are implemented,” Jonathan Buonocore, a research fellow at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a co-author of the paper, said in a statement.
The coal industry shot back, saying that the study discounted the negative health effects of reduced electric reliability and higher energy costs that would come with the EPA’s rule.
Read more here.
ON TAP TUESDAY I: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey will testify before a Senate panel on the legal issues surrounding the Obama administration’s climate rule.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee hearing comes after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) raised questions about the legality of the Clean Power Plan during a hearing with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy last week.
Oklahoma and West Virginia are among the handful of states suing the EPA over the proposed rule.
ON TAP TUESDAY II: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will convene a hearing on how the federal government manages wildfires on the land it owns and how it could improve firefighting. The panel will hear from United States Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell and a group of experts and stakeholders in wildfire management and forestry.
Rest of Tuesday’s agenda …
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association scientists hold a media briefing on climate change in the Arctic.
AROUND THE WEB:
In a win for environmentalists, Seattle officials said Monday that the city’s lease with the Port of Seattle does not allow Royal Dutch Shell to keep its Arctic Ocean drilling equipment there, as it had planned to do this summer, the Seattle Times reports.
New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R), who was arrested Monday, allegedly wanted the state to allow hydraulic fracturing so that it could write regulations to benefit a pollution filtering company where his son worked, Capital New York reports.
One-third of British Catholics surveyed said they would adopt a greener lifestyle if Pope Francis makes a statement on climate change, as he is expected to do soon.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Check out Monday’s stories …
-Energy Dept. hands out LED research funds
-Academics give boost to Obama climate rule
-Schumer wants faster oil train changes than Obama
-Key climate change goal may be missed
-SCOTUS takes up appeal on energy rule
-Biofuel policy delays lead to $13.7B investment ‘shortfall‘
-US oil executives to travel to Iran
-Greens pounce on research linking drilling to quakes
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