Power Plant Emissions to Drop To 1980s Levels Under U.S. Clean Power Plan

The Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to regulate power plant emissions will cut carbon pollution to its lowest
coal power plant
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Big Bend coal power plant in Florida
level since the 1980s, reducing CO2 emissions from power plants by 1.6 billion tons per year, according to an analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The Clean Power Plan, which was proposed last June, sets goals for reducing carbon emissions from existing power plants by 2030. Under the plan, power sector CO2 emissions are projected to fall 25 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and 34 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, the EIA analysis found. That would bring CO2 emissions from the power sector down to levels not seen since the early 1980s, the report notes.