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Apple Tells the EPA Why Cutting the Clean Power Plan Is a Bad Move (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Apple is pushing back against the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan. The company filed a public comment with the EPA today arguing that scrapping the policy, which calls for cutting power plant pollution, would dull the United States' competitive edge in the clean energy economy. The Clean Power Plan (or CPP) was finalized by the Obama administration, and it takes aim at power plants -- the number one carbon polluters in the U.S., according to the Obama-era EPA website. Had the CPP ever taken effect, it would have given power plants until the year 2030 to curb their carbon emissions by about 30 percent, a move that the Obama administration said could protect the environment, public health, and consumer's pocketbooks.

Apple's comment cites the economic advantages of supporting clean energy, including that it provides "corporate electricity buyers with a hedge against fuel price fluctuation." The price of solar and wind don't change like the price of oil, Apple's filing says. (It also notes that China is currently beating the U.S. in clean energy investments.) The company also says that regulating the grid's carbon emissions "power plant by power plant" won't work. It references its own experiences operating with 100 percent renewable energy here in the U.S. and the work of its subsidiary, Apple Energy LLC, which sells the excess electricity the company generates back to the grid. The electricity system is far too interconnected, the filing says, so "regulation should consider the dynamic and interconnected nature of how power is generated, sold and consumed." That's why it supports the clean power plan, which it says provides a nationwide framework for regulating electricity generation: "It is both needed and the smart thing to do."

2 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. You can still suppport clean energy on your own by elrous0 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    AFAIK, this repeal doesn't stop anyone from developing clean energy on their own. It just removes the mandate that they HAVE too.

    Apple is just pissed that other companies won't be forced to waste a ton of money developing a lot of clean energy that usually turns out to not be all it's cracked up to be. As a Silicon Valley company with a smug liberal customer base, Apple doesn't have any choice but to go clean. And they want to government to force other companies to do it too, so they won't be the only ones stuck with the additional costs.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. Re: This couldn't possibly hurt more. by Type44Q · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    I hope we're not supposed to be surprised that seeing through the puppet show is now considered "cowardly."

    Did [those who self-identify as "the left"] absorb a fucking thing MLK said??

    "The 'zombie apocalypse' is a thing, it is here... and it is you."