Extreme weather events, like the National Weather Service’s issuance of an excessive heat warning lasting from Monday, July 1st until late evening Thursday, July 5th in Minneapolis-St Paul metro area, are on the rise and scientists warn that global warming will bring even more extreme weather in the future. We know that power plants are the largest single source of the carbon pollution fueling global warming, but for too long, power plants haven’t had any federal limits on how much carbon pollution they could spew into our air.
Right now, President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency are working to fix this. They’ve proposed the first-ever carbon pollution standards for new power plants—a truly historic step towards cleaning up the largest single source of carbon pollution, and helping to guard against even more extreme weather for Minnesota and the country.
A record number of Americans have already spoken out in support of the proposed standards, and I urge the EPA to finish the job on these standards and also develop standards for existing power plants—our safety and our environment are depending on it.
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