“The Biggest, Most Important Step” Yet Taken on Climate Change
Tuesday, August 4th, 2015August 4, 2015
Yesterday, August 3, U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled a new initiative to combat climate change, the Clean Power Plan. President Obama called the plan “the biggest, most important step we have ever taken” concerning climate change. The regulations, if approved, will authorize the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate power plants that generate electric power in order to reduce carbon emissions by 32 percent by 2030.
The plan will likely hit the coal industry the hardest. About 40 percent of electricity in the United States is generated with coal. The coal is used to heat water, generating steam. This steam turns a turbine, which powers a generator that creates electricity. The problem with coal is that it emits twice as much carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere as does natural gas used for the same purpose. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in Earth’s atmosphere, leading to rising average temperatures.
Coal-burning power plants such as this release carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases trap heat, contributing to global warming, an observed increase in Earth’s average surface temperature.© Thinkstock
There are more than 50 major coal mines in the United States. Many of the mines are in West Virginia and Wyoming. So, coal is a domestically produced fuel source, and U.S. states that produce coal will be hurt by any regulation that reduces its use. At one time, using natural gas to fuel power plants would have been very expensive for the United States. But, the development of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in such U.S. states as North Dakota has caused the cost of natural gas to drop dramatically.
Natural gas is perhaps the easiest fuel source to change out for coal to reduce emissions. Renewable energy, such as wind power and solar power can also be used to generate electricity. Both methods, however, require building an electric-power grid that can move power from remote locations where wind and solar farms are to populated areas where electricity is needed. Nevertheless, such power sources are already being used and will be more used in the future. President Obama stated yesterday, “I’m convinced no challenge provides a greater threat to the future of the planet…There is such a thing as being too late.”
Wind turbines capture energy from moving air—wind—and change it into electrical energy. This photograph shows a wind turbine “farm” in the California desert. © Shutterstock
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