HEC has worked to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all of the leading sources in Indiana.
- Energy: through advancing renewable and energy efficiency policy,
- Transportation: through advocacy for transit, rail, and trails,
- Agriculture: through slowing down the proliferation of CAFOs, and
- Industry: through our efforts to facilitate more green-minded combined heat-and-power investment.
In the last decade, Indiana residents have endured record-breaking heat waves, droughts, cold spells, and a number of floods, including two one-hundred year flood events and one five-hundred year flood event, so we are already seeing some early impacts of climate change. Most recently, flooding around Indiana shut down several roads and damaged homes and businesses, and volatile weather patterns have made farming much more difficult.
A study in the journal Nature Climate Change analyzed the impacts of various policy options for power plant standards on public health and clean air. The potential benefits to Indiana are illustrated in the graphic below. By reducing soot and smog, new standards have the potential to save 1100 lives, prevent 400 hospitalizations and 80 heart attacks in Indiana alone.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan cuts carbon pollution from existing power plants, the single largest source of carbon pollution in the United States. This plan will protect public health, move the United States toward a cleaner environment and fight climate change while supplying Americans with reliable and affordable power.
The Natural Resources Defense Council has released an analysis, which suggests that in 2020 the U.S. could cut 470-700 million tons of carbon pollution – a reduction that would yield as much as $60 billion in environmental and public health benefits.
For more information, read HEC’s former executive director, Jesse Kharbanda’s, statement.