Iowa attorney general defends Clean Power Plan

Coalition of states and local governments oppose EPA’s new pollution rules

DES MOINES -- Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller released the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s proposed plan to dismantle the Clean Power Plan, the first-ever national limits on climate change emissions from existing fossil-fuel power plants:

“Iowa has made huge strides in moving away from its dependence on coal.  Wind provided 37 percent of Iowa’s total electric generation last year, a larger share than in any other state. Iowa is well prepared to comply with the Clean Power Plan.

“The administration wants to go backward, however, and our health and our environment will suffer as a result. The administration’s own proposal acknowledges that its replacement plan would increase carbon emissions and, according to some estimates, lead to up to 1,400 premature deaths annually.”

The Iowa attorney general’s office is part of a coalition in defense of the Clean Power Plan that includes New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, the District of Columbia, New York City, Broward County, Fla., Boulder, Colo.; Chicago; Philadelphia, Pa.; and South Miami, Fla. The states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania and the city of Los Angeles also joined in comments the coalition filed in April opposing repeal of the Clean Power Plan.

The Clean Power Plan is the culmination of a decade-long effort by partnering states and cities to require mandatory cuts in the emissions of climate change pollution from fossil fuel-burning power plants under the Clean Air Act. The Clean Power Plan, along with the companion rule applicable to new, modified, and reconstructed power plants, would control these emissions by setting limits on the amount of climate change pollution that power plants can emit. The Clean Power Plan would eliminate as much climate change pollution as is emitted by more than 160 million cars a year, or 70 percent of the nation’s passenger cars.