The Clean Power Plan seeks to make America more reliant on natural-fired power plants and other natural sources of energy as opposed to coal-fired power plants.  This change with directly benefit the health of America’s population since this would decrease the amount of PM2.5.  PM2.5 is any airborne mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets, which has a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less (laqm.defra.gov.uk).  Chemicals emitted from plants( such as sulfur dioxide, VOCs and ammonia) act as precursors to these particle matters.  PM2.5 can cause “respiratory problems, heart disease and lung cancer, conditions that would, therefore, be made less prevalent by climate regulations” (Mooney).  As shown by the chart below, the amount of PM2.5 has been recently decreasing over time due to the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations.

https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/particulate-matter-pm25-trends

However, even these lower than average levels still cause premature deaths and increase in medical costs.  According to a new Trump administration document, 423,000 tons of the PM2.5 precursor gas, sulfur dioxide, can avoided in the year 2030.  According to estimates, this could cause a decrease of 1,900 to 4,500 premature deaths per year after 2030 and can save $4-8 billion dollars in health costs (Mooney).  These estimates are controversial, especially since the EPA has changed a few major assumptions which go into creating them.  Even so, PM2.5 has been proven to be detrimental to health costs and to people biologically.  Therefore, even if the numbers are incorrect, the qualitative analysis behind them holds true.

Air pollution has recently caused about 200,000 American deaths per year (Chu).  This makes air pollution a deadly force, which should be controlled and eradicated.  Air is an essential resource, which needs to be clean for the health and happiness of Americans, and for economic reasons mainly tied to health care.  A main source of air pollution and of PM2.5 is coal plants and transit vehicles.  In order to keep the air clean, pollutant emissions should continue to be regulated, and the amount of coal plants in use should be decreased.  Optimally, America should gain a greater reliance on more natural sources of energy such as solar and wind energy, as well as natural-fired plants.  This clean energy transition would not just improve the health and economic strain of America, but also its sustainability.

References

Mooney, Chris. “Even Trump’s EPA Says Obama’s Climate Plan Would Save Thousands of Lives Each Year.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 Nov. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/11/01/trumps-epa-says-obamas-climate-rule-could-prevent-up-to-4500-deaths-annually-moves-to-scrap-it/.

Office, Jennifer Chu MIT News. “Study: Air Pollution Causes 200,000 Early Deaths Each Year in the U.S.” MIT News, 29 Aug. 2013, news.mit.edu/2013/study-air-pollution-causes-200000-early-deaths-each-year-in-the-us-0829.

https://laqm.defra.gov.uk/public-health/pm25.html.