SAN FRANCISCO – Senior California state representatives will testify Wednesday in opposition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of federal efforts to address climate change. Representing seven state agencies involved in climate and clean energy policy, they will testify that repeal of the Clean Power Plan ignores science and will endanger public health, the environment and economic prosperity.

WHAT: Testimony at U.S. EPA’s listening session on repealing the Clean Power Plan

WHERE: San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 30 Grove St., San Francisco

WHEN: Wednesday, February, 28, 2018. Testimony from state officials will run from approximately 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Speakers will be available for media Q&A directly following the testimony.

(NOTE: A live webcast of the hearing will be available here.)

WHO: Senior California representatives:

• Matthew Rodriquez, Secretary, California Environmental Protection Agency
• Mary D. Nichols, Chair, California Air Resources Board
• Tom Gibson, Undersecretary, California Natural Resources Agency
• Courtney Smith, Chief Deputy Director, California Energy Commission
• Carla Peterman, California Public Utilities Commissioner
• Keith Casey, Vice President, California Independent System Operator
• Arsenio Mataka, Special Assistant to the Attorney General for the Environment

Background

The Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of federal efforts to address climate change, builds on state progress in reducing carbon pollution from power plants, the largest stationary source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. The plan will help cut emissions from power plants by a third below 2005 levels by 2030.

Last year, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. reaffirmed California’s commitment to exceed the targets of the Clean Power Plan, and the state, with one of the cleanest power grids in the country, remains on track to exceed the plan’s requirements.

California is on track to produce 33 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020. Under SB 350, signed by Governor Brown in 2015, California will produce 50 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030 and double the rate of energy efficiency savings in California buildings. In 2016, Governor Brown signed SB 32, which commits California to reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 – the most ambitious target in North America.