The Daily Tar Heel
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The Daily Tar Heel

Letter:​ State should not fight necessary EPA rules

TO THE EDITOR:

Regarding Monday’s article “NC poised against EPA’s Clean Power Plan,” thank you for reporting on our state leaders’ reluctance to prioritize the health of North Carolinians by resisting the full implementation of the Clean Power Plan, which is designed to curb the emissions that cause global climate change.

The EPA offers each state flexibility in determining how it goes about implementing the plan in order to cut CO2 emissions. In recent years, North Carolina has led the Southeast in renewable energy installations.

If we simply continue this trajectory, we would achieve the requirements of the Clean Power Plan while strengthening our energy infrastructure, providing green jobs in rural communities and lowering consumers’ energy bills. Instead, Gov. Pat McCrory and N.C. Senate leaders want to freeze our renewables industry and sue the EPA for administrative overreach.

Not only is this economically counterproductive, but it ignores the health risks brought about by climate change: increased potential for heat-related illness, longer allergy seasons, more favorable conditions for disease-carrying insects like ticks and mosquitoes and increasingly erratic and severe weather.

I urge members of the UNC community to tell Gov. McCrory and N.C. Senate leaders that they must prioritize our health now and in the future: We want clean power, not legal challenges.

Laura Wenzel

Manager

Medical Advocates 
for Healthy Air

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