Environmental Protection Agency's proposed power plant rules mark a critical step

 In response to the US Environmental Protection Agency's proposed new carbon pollution standards for power plants, Heather Coleman, climate change program manager for Oxfam America said:

"The Environmental Protection Agency's proposed power plant rules are long overdue and absolutely essential to preventing the poorest people on the planet from unnecessary hardships because of carbon pollution. They mark a critical step towards dealing with the harmful affect coal fired power plants have on public health and the climate, and meeting international emissions reduction commitments. More can and should be done to scale up these targets.

"Political posturing should not get in the way of these basic protections for public health. Droughts, floods and increasingly extreme weather are already destroying crops, undermining efforts to fight hunger and costing communities billions of dollars per year. The real question is not whether these steps should be taken but what more can be done to build on them."