The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today unveiled a new rule to reduce carbon pollution from existing and future fossil fuel power plants. The rule will:

• Help ensure communities and workers get clarity on plant closures;
• Encourage utilities to do right by their workers by providing workforce data and ensuring a workforce transition plan is in place;
• Require states to meaningfully engage with both energy workers and local community members around their plans; and
• Encourage state plans to take advantage of the effort by the Energy Communities Interagency Working Group to help communities take advantage of the billions of dollars of federal investments signed into law by President Biden that are directed to coal communities.

BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director Jason Walsh spoke at the event unveiling the rule at Howard University and released a statement following the event:

“Energy workers and communities have disproportionately borne the economic pain of the transition to clean energy, while not fully sharing in the economic gain. That is unacceptable. We can’t leave workers or communities behind as we make these fundamental changes in our energy economy, which are also the changes necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We must keep workers and communities whole to revitalize and diversify local economies, address deep economic and racial inequities, and build accessible pathways into good-paying, union jobs.

“This rule calls on utilities and states to be full partners in making this transition fair for energy workers and communities. It also complements the historic federal investments made by the Biden-Harris administration and the previous Congress, which provide a toolbox of critical investments targeted to the workers and communities experiencing the economic impacts of energy transition.”