Obama administration should mitigate global warming impacts
To the editor:
After Inauguration Day, the Obama administration will announce its energy plan, thereby establishing priorities and hopefully setting high standards on energy and climate policy for the next four years. It is crucial to our environment and to our very existence that global warming emissions be reduced now.
There is a threat that could undermine C02 reduction goals of Obama’s administration. Presently, there are about 100 proposed coal plants nationwide in the permitting process. If their permits are approved and the plants constructed, they will emit more than 480 million tons of C02 annually. We already have 500 coal-fired plants in the U.S. that are responsible for 2 billion tons of C02 annually. This makes them the country’s single largest source of global warming pollution.
To reduce global warming pollution and initiate a clean energy economy, Obama’s administration should direct the EPA to require all existing and new coal plants to limit their global warming emissions.
Marti Daltry
North Fort Myers