Media Contact
Scott Pruitt, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has announced that today he will formally sign a proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan — President Barack Obama’s policy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. The move deals a blow to U.S. competitiveness in future energy markets according to a Cornell University expert, and gives countries like China and Germany a leg up.
David M. Lodge
Director of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
David Lodge, director of the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University, says the EPA is “trying to throw the U.S. energy economy in reverse.”
Lodge says:
“The EPA’s action is bad for human health, the environment, and short-sighted economically. By ignoring the benefits of reducing sources of carbon pollution within the U.S. for people inside and outside U.S. borders, the EPA seems also to be inviting other countries to send their pollution our way.
“While the other major economies of the world are ramping up investments in renewable energy to protect their citizens and position themselves for the inevitable lower carbon economies of the future, the EPA is trying to throw the U.S. energy economy in reverse. Instead of encouraging U.S. competitiveness in future energy technology, today’s EPA action injects uncertainty into U.S. energy markets and gives the economic advantage to China and Germany.”
