President Sounds a Call to Action on Climate Change

Vowing to confront the number-one environmental threat facing the nation, President Obama pledged in his historic second inaugural address Monday to confront climate change.

Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, made the following statement:

This is a call to action against the climate chaos that is sweeping our nation and threatening our future. Now it's time to act. Power plants are our single largest source of carbon pollution. We must cut that pollution. We must do it now, for the sake of our country, our children and the future we share.

Last year was the hottest on record for the continental United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported earlier this month.

The NRDC has proposed a common-sense plan to reduce power plant carbon pollution by 26 percent by 2020. The proposal would keep roughly half a billion tons of carbon out of the atmosphere every year, cutting the U.S. carbon footprint by about 10 percent.

It would give states the flexibility to tailor plans to their individual energy mix, allow utilities to find the most cost-effective way to hit the targets and save families up to $700 a year in electricity costs.

Here is a link to the NOAA report: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/2012/13

Here is a link to the NRDC plan: https://www.nrdc.org/air/pollution-standards/