In addition to the vital public health benefits it offers, the Clean Power Plan is the nation’s most significant action to date to address climate change’s number one culprit – heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions.
Now, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is trying to revoke the Clean Power Plan. Here’s a look at the enormous benefits we could lose.
When the Clean Power Plan is fully in place by 2030, the avoided annual carbon dioxide emissions relative to business-as-usual (350 million metric tons) are equivalent to preventing:
- 40 billion gallons of gasoline consumed, or
- 380 billion pounds of coal burned, or
- 810 million barrels of oil consumed, or
- 850 billion miles driven by an average car.
In order to get the same climate benefits that the Clean Power Plan would deliver, we would need to:
- Replace 12 billion incandescent light bulbs with LEDs, or
- Take 75 million cars off the road
