Georgia Coal-to-Solar Pivot Shows the Way on Climate Regs

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-01/georgia-coal-to-nuke-pivot-shows-the-way-on-climate-regs.html

***SNIP

In Smith’s home state, as in the rest of the nation, businesses and consumers are struggling to size up competing claims about the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants, released June 2. The proposed regulations are among the most sweeping and complex in the EPA’s history, promising to revamp the way electricity has been generated and distributed for a century.





To reduce carbon emissions 17 percent nationwide by 2030, the EPA created separate goals for states based on the agency’s determination of what each could do to generate electricity with less carbon pollution and to use it more efficiently.

In practice, the EPA rules, if upheld by the courts, will mean less electricity from plants that burn emission-heavy coal and more from cleaner-burning natural gas, nuclear or renewable energy. It will also, the EPA predicts, curb demand for electricity by promoting efficiency, and actually lead to job gains and lower electric bills -- though some industry leaders vigorously dispute those last two points.

[intaglio]

1. Gradually it's happening

But will it be fast enough to ameliorate climate chaos