Friday, May 3, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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According to a report from the American Lung Association, nearly 40% of people in the U.S. — 131 million—live with unhealthy air pollution.
Extreme heat, drought and wildfires are among the factors that have contributed to the increase. Besides carbon, ozone pollution is formed from emissions from cars, power plants and refineries.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a rule among four measures targeting coal and natural gas plants; they would be forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down. The goal is to encourage them to invest intransitioning to a clean energy economy.
Building on his climate, clean energy and environmental justice agenda, President Joe Biden celebrated Earth Day by highlighting his administration’s progress in tackling the climate crisis with the goals of cutting costs for everyday Americans, and creating good-paying jobs. There are now major new actions to advance Biden’s historic climate, conservation and environmental justice agenda.
One is $7 billion in grants through the EPA’s Solar for All competition, which will deliver residential solar power to over 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities, saving overburdened households more than $350 million in electricity costs annually and avoiding more than 30 million metric tons of carbon pollution over the next 25 years.
The program also advances the president’s Justice40 Initiative, which set a goal that 40% of the benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
