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Health Impact

According to Energy Innovation’s Energy Policy Simulator, a repeal of the Clean Power Plan would lead to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions of more than 500 million metric tons by 2030, and by 2050, that figure would rise to more than 1,200 million metric tons . High levels of CO2 and other particulate matter emissions cause adverse health affects and high levels of air pollution are linked to lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic-obstructive-pulmonary disease . The EPA estimates that in 2010 alone, the enactment of the Clean Power Plan prevented 160,000 deaths, 54,000 cases of chronic bronchitis, 230 infant deaths, 130,000 cases of heart diseases and 86,000 emergency room visits .

People of low income, elderly, and minority populations will be disproportionately affected by the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, as recent study at Harvard discovered that people over age 65 and living in low-income communities are most vulnerable to air pollution and are dying prematurely even under current air-pollution standards . Furthermore, the EPA's proximity analysis concludes that a higher percentage of minority and low-income communities live near power plants when compared to the national averages, increasing risk of disease and death due to toxic particulate matter emissions and air pollution .

In accordance with Executive Order 12898, the EPA is required to make environmental justice a part of its mission. The Clean Power Plan provides tools to reduce the burden placed on minority, low-income, and indigenous communities from pollution and ensure that these communities are not disproportionately affected by the rule .

The EPA has determined that greenhouse gas pollution causes global temperature warming, leading to harmful changes to the environment and human health globally such as increased drought and increased famine due to decrease in water supply and agricultural production. According to the EPA fact sheet on the Clean Power Plan, climate change is responsible for everything from stronger storms to longer droughts and increased insurance premiums, food prices and allergy seasons . The populations most vulnerable to the adverse affects of climate change include children, older adults, people with heart or lung disease and people living in poverty . The repeal of the Clean Power Plan will increase greenhouse gas emissions, expediting the damaging environmental changes due to climate change that disproportionately affect subaltern populations around the globe .

Global Impact

The United States' enactment of the Clean Power Plan was one of the first major global initiatives to curb internal greenhouse gas emissions. Since the plan was established in 2014, there have been various global efforts made to decrease toxic particulate matter emissions by other developed nations. The Paris Agreement was agreed upon in October 2016 and entered into force in November 2016. The Paris Agreement aims to combat global climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius . In order to enact the plan, 194 UNFCCC member nations have signed the treaty, 141 of which have ratified it .

Some fear that with the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, the United States will not be able to meet the greenhouse gas emission standards agreed upon at the Paris Convention, and in turn, will have to withdraw from the agreement. Without it, the United States is projected to fall over 20% short of its pledge.

The decisions made on the global greenhouse gas emission rates by the economic powerhouse nations such as the United States and China disproportionately affect developing nations who don't have the infrastructure to combat climate change induced drought, famine, and other natural and anthropogenic disasters and the poorest most underdeveloped nations emit the lowest levels of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses.