In the first peer-reviewed study of its kind, researchers have found that emissions-curbing policies such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan would “provide immediate local and regional health co-benefits” and could prevent up to 3,500 premature deaths per year.
The EPA’s Clean Power Plan aims to cut emissions of carbon dioxide largely through stricter limits on the coal-fired power plants, one of the country’s largest sources of greenhouse gas pollution. The standards, according to the White House and others, represent a significant opportunity to help minimize the growing consequences of climate change.
But the new study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that more energy efficiency reduces the emission not only of carbon, but also of other pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which create soot and smog and in turn have the biggest effect on health.
By modeling three different emissions scenarios, the researchers from Harvard and Syracuse universities, as well as several other institutions, calculated that the changes in the EPA rule could prevent 3,500 premature deaths a year and more than 1,000 heart attacks and hospitalizations from air-pollution-related illness.
According to the New York Times, “The scenario with the biggest health benefit was the one that most closely resembled the changes that the Environmental Protection Agency proposed in a rule in June. Under that plan, reductions in carbon emissions for the plants would be set by states, and would include improvements to energy efficiency of, for example, air-conditioners, refrigerators and power grids.”
The EPA rules, which some environmentalists criticized as “too little, too late,” are due to be finalized in mid-summer.
As the Washington Post reports, enacting the proposal will be a challenge:
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