Grandoni, Dino. “Biden Begins Crackdown on Power Plant Pollution.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 Feb. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/01/31/mercury-power-plants-epa-climate/.
Recently, the Biden Administration has been cracking down on the pollution emitted from power plants, as the country continues to try to switch to cleaner energy. Essentially, Biden has dismissed Trump’s past determination that mercury limits on power plants are unnecessary, and has set new limits on pollution. The EPA has, as well, begun to push for tighter restrictions on power plants, and are currently pressuring the nation’s most harmful power plants into shutting down. None of this comes as much of a surprise, as Biden has pledged to make the electricity sector carbon-neutral by 2035. Now there is definitely more that must be done to achieve his goal, but this is a good start.
In my opinion, I think it is very good that Biden reversed Trump’s policies. He has never shown much regard for climate change, but mercury is also a very toxic chemical that can have direct effects on people close to the emissions. But aside from the direct consequences, limiting pollutants on power plants is a really good start towards a carbon-neutral future. According to a president of electric institutes, he and the electric power industry have invested over 18 billion dollars to enforce pollution control that meets Biden’s new standards. Oftentimes, when climate change issues are trying to be solved, the funds and the attitude of the people is what gets in the way. It is very promising to me that people inside of the electric power industry want to push for a greener future, as they are the ones who can really make these changes. As well as this, actually having sufficient funds to execute environmental funds can be tricky, but billions of dollars sounds like it could do the job. To me, what is good about having Biden in office is that he cooperates and works with the EPA far more than Trump ever did, so I think finally some real changes can be made.
This seems like a very good and hopeful start to a greener future. Is there any known time of when the power plants will be moved to completely green energy?
I believe more centralized power plants could be the solution. They can be more efficient than other forms of renewable energy but they must be done cleanly.
I also believe that this is a great step by the Biden administration in helping out our environment and trying to revert the damage. How long could this process take?