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| EPA seeks 30% cut in power plant carbon emissions by 2030 - USA TODAY Posted: 02 Jun 2014 08:50 AM PDT Taking a historic step to fight climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency today proposed a plan that aims to slash carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants 30% by 2030 and could accelerate the nation's shift away from coal. "By leveraging cleaner energy sources and cutting energy waste, this plan will clean the air we breathe while helping slow climate change so we can leave a safe and healthy future for our kids," said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, adding it will spur innovation and create jobs. She said the plan will give states flexibility to lower power plant emissions, setting goals tailored to their circumstances. Yet the controversial proposal, a major part of President Obama's climate initiative, will set a national target of lowering these heat-trapping CO² emissions — from 2005 levels — of 30% by 2030. The EPA says that reduction amount is equal to the emissions from powering more than half of U.S. homes for one year. Thwarted by Congress' inability to pass a bill to lower carbon emissions, Obama is pushing his own approach. Last June, he asked the EPA to use its authority under the Clean Air Act to limit power plant emissions, which account for the largest share — nearly 40% — of total U.S. emissions. Coal-fired facilities will be hardest hit, because they emit more carbon than other power plants. The rule, expected to trigger legal challenges, will not take effect for at least two more years. Obama has asked the EPA to finalize it in June 2015, after which the states will have at least a year to craft their plans. If states balk at submitting them, the EPA could step in with its own version. Opponents are already lining up against the proposal. Today, Rep. Nick J. Rahall, D- W.V., said he will work with his state's GOP colleague, Rep. David McKinley, to introduce legislation to stop both the new rule for existing power plants as well as one proposed last year for future plants. "This new regulation threatens our economy and does so with an apparent disregard for the livelihoods of our coal miners and thousands of families throughout West Virginia," Rahall said. Last week, the Chamber of Commerce released a report saying such regulation could raise consumer prices for electricity, kill jobs and slow economic growth. In the GOP Saturday radio address, Wyoming's Sen. Mike Enzi said the Obama administration has "set out to kill coal and its 800,000 jobs." If it succeeds, he warned, "we'll all be paying a lot more money for electricity — if we can get it." McCarthy said critics have "time after time ... cried wolf to protect their own agenda." She said their dire predictions about the economic costs of reducing urban smog in the 1960s and acid rain in the 1990s have been proven wrong. "We can innovate our way to a better future," McCarthy said. "From the light bulb to the locomotive; from photovoltaic cells to cellphones, America has always turned small steps into giant leaps." Obama said Saturday that the proposal will reduce air pollution, improve health and spur a clean energy economy that can be "an engine of growth." He spoke from the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., after visiting with kids being treated for asthma and other breathing problems that he said are aggravated by dirty air. The administration says its proposal will save more than $90 billion in climate and health benefits and will avoid up to 100,000 asthma attacks and 2,100 heart attacks annually. The EPA says it expects coal, which now provides 37% of the nation's electricity — down from 52% in 2000 — will still provide 30% of U.S. power by 2030. It says the increasing retirements of coal-fired plants, which now average 42 years, are because of economics such as the plunging price of natural gas — not its proposal. Coal-fired power plants have already been closing. DOE data indicate the number has fallen from 633 in 2002 to 557 in 2012 and it expects 60 gigawatts of coal-fired power — one-fifth of total U.S. coal capacity in 2012 — will retire by 2020. In contrast, natural gas has seen its share of U.S. electricity generation nearly double, from 16% in 2000 to 30% in 2012. McCarthy said U.S. wind energy has tripled and solar has grown ten-fold since 2009 — two sources that she says can help states meet carbon emissions cuts. "This rule would accelerate that shift" away from coal, says Kyle Aarons, a senior fellow at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a non-profit group. The carbon limits could lead to "draconian changes" in the U.S. energy mix, says Karen Harbert, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy. As coal use and total energy consumption has declined, so too have total U.S. carbon emissions, which have fallen about 10% since 2005. DOE forecasts a slight rise in the near future without new emission caps. In 2009, Obama pledged to lower U.S. emissions 17% below 2005 levels by 2020., Power plants account for roughly one-third of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, While plants are limited in how much arsenic, mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particle pollution they can emit, they currently face no federal limits on carbon releases. Some states that rely heavily on coal might struggle more than others to meet the EPA limits. Kentucky, Wyoming, West Virginia, Indiana and North Dakota have the highest carbon emission rates while Idaho, Vermont, Washington, Oregon and Maine have the lowest, according to a May report co-authored by Ceres, a non-profit group that promotes corporate sustainability. Dan Bakal, Ceres' director of electric power, says coal-reliant states "have the most opportunities to reduce emissions, because there are many options they've not yet deployed." Given the state-specific goals in the EPA plan, he says the reductions are "achievable." Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1gYlEQQ |
| Spain's King Juan Carlos I to abdicate - CNN Posted: 02 Jun 2014 08:57 AM PDT STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Read this story at CNN Espanol: Abdica el rey de España. Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- After nearly 40 years on the throne, King Juan Carlos I of Spain said Monday that he will be stepping down. It is "time to hand over to a new generation -- younger, with a lot of energy -- that can, with determination, take on and carry out the changes that the current situation demands, and to face with intensity and determination the challenges of tomorrow," he said in a televised statement, according to a CNN translation. "The long, deep economic crisis we are going through has left a lot of scars socially, but it has also pointed toward a future of hope," he said. Crown Prince Felipe, 46, will succeed his father. The king said he decided it was "time to prepare and pave way so that he who is in better conditions can continue." Felipe is "stable" and has "the maturity, the preparation, and the sense of responsibility necessary" to serve as king and "to lead to a new stage of hope using his experience and the drive of a new generation," Juan Carlos added. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy first announced the king's decision. Spaniards generally hold Juan Carlos, 76, in high regard for his service to the nation and his defense of democracy after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. But the king's popularity took a hit in 2012 over a controversial elephant hunting trip to Africa while the nation was mired in a deep economic crisis. The focus of his reign was to bring about reconciliation between Spaniards of different political persuasions, and from different regions. Many consider the king's finest hour to be his decisive stand to halt a right-wing military coup in 1981, when he went on television to say that the monarchy would not tolerate attempts to interrupt democracy by force. Oversaw democracy's return Born in Rome in 1938, Juan Carlos didn't set foot in Spain until he was 10. In Franco's Spain, he carried out military training and became the first Spanish officer to hold the rank of lieutenant in all three branches of the military. In 1969, he was invested as crown prince and the designated successor to Franco. On November 22, 1975 -- two days after Franco's death -- Juan Carlos was crowned king of Spain, restoring the monarchy after a 44-year interregnum. In 1977, he enacted political reforms that led to Spain's first democratic election since 1936. During his reign, Spain grew into an economic powerhouse and a vacation playground for Europe. The king and Queen Sofia had three children and numerous grandchildren, styling their monarchy as accessible and relatively austere. Hunting trip dented image The private trip to Botswana became public only after Juan Carlos fell, broke his hip and was rushed back to Madrid for surgery. With millions of Spaniards unemployed, the expense of the African trip caused an outcry. That prompted the king to make a rare apology in which he said he had made a mistake that would not happen again. The king had previously expressed his concern about the impact of the crisis on Spaniards and called on the nation to come together to get through the tough times. Other recent scandals have also damaged the monarchy's image. Princess Cristina, the king's youngest daughter, is caught up in a tax fraud and money laundering investigation. She and her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, have denied any wrongdoing over his business dealings and the alleged diversion of public funds. The scandal has created unprecedented problems for the royal family and kept the country riveted. There have been open calls for the king to abdicate in favor of Felipe, who is seen as untouched by the scandals. Juan Carlos: All you need to know Belgium's King Albert II gives up throne to son CNN's Al Goodman reported from Madrid; Jethro Mullen wrote from Hong Kong. |
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