A Huge Show of Support for the Power Plant Standard The Environmental Protection Agency received more than 2.3 million comments in support of the carbon pollution standard, breaking its previous public comment record by leaps and bounds. Thank you for making history with us.

You Made History! The EPA Received a Record-Breaking Number of Comments in Support of the Carbon Pollution Standard

We all understand that carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels—the gasoline in our cars and coal in our power plants—are contributing to global warming. With so much of the country undergoing drought, heat waves, and other weather extremes, many are asking if climate change is playing a role.

The latest science studying extreme weather events over decades indicates strong evidence for links between climate change and extreme heat, intense precipitation, and droughts. It’s clear that the time for climate action is now.That’s why I’m so excited to say that, with your help, more than 40,000 UCS supporters submitted comments in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed standard to reduce carbon pollution from new power plants.

Not only did UCS surpass our goal of 40,000 comments, but together with a broad coalition of public health, environmental, labor, faith, and other organizations, we made history and broke a record! More than 2.3 million citizens across the country submitted comments to the EPA in support of the carbon pollution standard.

This is the most comments the EPA has ever received on a proposed standard, and demonstrates the widespread public support for the EPA’s efforts to protect our health and clean up dirty power plants. In addition, UCS staff and members of the UCS Science Network—including doctors, nurses, and economists—testified in support of the standard at hearings in Chicago and Washington, DC. We also released a letter from 372 public health professionals who back the EPA’s efforts to address climate change.

This was truly an unprecedented showing of support for action to limit carbon emissions from power plants. Now, we’re ready for the next step.

We expect the EPA to finalize its standard for new power plants this year and then to follow up with similarly strong standards to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants—like our nation’s oldest and dirtiest coal fired power plants—which accounts for about 40 percent of our global warming emissions.

Unfortunately, some lawmakers have already announced that they plan to introduce legislation to block or delay this historic standard as soon as it is finalized this year. But I know I can count on you to help defend the EPA’s standard from congressional attacks in the coming months.

Thank you for helping make this a big success! The EPA has heard loud and clear that the country is ready to meet the climate challenge—and that this is only the first, small step towards protecting our health and the environment from the impacts of global warming.

Sincerely,

Chrissy Elles Outreach Associate UCS Climate & Energy Program