{"478411":{"#nid":"478411","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Watch Out for Political Fallout from the Paris Climate Accord","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEarlier this month, the Obama administration negotiated the first global accord that commits 195 countries to diverge from their \u201cbusiness-as-usual\u201d emissions of greenhouse gases.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, when the U.S. climate negotiators return from Paris, the partisan bickering is going to intensify, said\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EMarilyn Brown\u003C\/strong\u003E, the Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy, in her blog:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe U.S. fleet of fossil fuel-fired power plants is our nation\u2019s single largest source of climate-destabilizing pollution and one of the largest sources in the world. That means our politicians are going to fight or support the Administration\u2019s first climate policy aimed at decarbonizing U.S. power plants \u2013 the Clean Power Plan. Critics are going to argue that the U.S. cannot afford to take such actions.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut strong evidence suggests that the Clean Power Plan will save thousands of lives each year, prevent tens of thousands of asthma attacks annually, and help ensure hundreds of thousands of Americans do not miss work and school due to harmful air pollution. The monetary value of these public health and climate benefits is in the billions. While there are costs associated with reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, they are far outweighed by their benefits. Research by Georgia Tech\u2019s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cepl.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EClimate and Energy Policy Lab\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;documents that the cheapest approach to reducing CO2 emissions is to consume less energy by using it more efficiently.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy \u201cenergy efficiency,\u201d I don\u2019t mean taking cold showers and drinking warm beer. It means getting more energy services out of the energy you consume \u2013 with LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs, smart appliances that run when electricity is cheapest, 3-D additive manufacturing, and the transformation of manufacturing plants into power generators by using their large concentrations of waste heat. These \u201cnegawatts\u201d that can be saved are the cleanest and cheapest energy resource in the U.S., and especially right here in the South. Their full potential will be exploited, however, only if the U.S. creates a supportive policy environment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELet\u2019s get behind the Clean Power Plan and show that saving the planet via the Paris Accord can be good for the health of the U.S. economy, its citizens, and its ecosystem.\u0026nbsp; The climate challenge faced by the U.S. and the world is not partisan -- it affects everyone.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EBrown\u0027s piece was published in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/amplifier.gatech.edu\/articles\/2015\/12\/watch-out-political-fallout-paris-climate-accord\u0022\u003EThe Amplifier\u003C\/a\u003E on December 14. She discusses the impact of clean energy sources on job creation in an expanded version of the piece that appears on the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cepl.gatech.edu\/node\/89\u0022\u003EClimate and Energy Policy Lab blog\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen the U.S. climate negotiators return from Paris, the partisan bickering is going to intensify, said\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EMarilyn Brown\u003C\/strong\u003E, the Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy, in her blog.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Earlier this month, the Obama administration negotiated the first global accord that commits 195 countries to diverge from their \u201cbusiness-as-usual\u201d emissions of greenhouse gases."}],"uid":"28513","created_gmt":"2015-12-14 13:44:24","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:20:16","author":"Daniel Singer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-12-14T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-12-14T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"478401":{"id":"478401","type":"image","title":"Fossil Fuel Power Plant","body":null,"created":"1450285200","gmt_created":"2015-12-16 17:00:00","changed":"1475895230","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:50","alt":"Fossil Fuel Power Plant","file":{"fid":"204131","name":"fossil-fuel-power-plant_700wx.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/fossil-fuel-power-plant_700wx_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/fossil-fuel-power-plant_700wx_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":77522,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/fossil-fuel-power-plant_700wx_0.jpg?itok=XM9fPgZ-"}},"408421":{"id":"408421","type":"image","title":"Marilyn Brown","body":null,"created":"1449254188","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:36:28","changed":"1507036835","gmt_changed":"2017-10-03 13:20:35","alt":"","file":{"fid":"202185","name":"140923_brown.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/140923_brown_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/140923_brown_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":38907,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/140923_brown_0.jpg?itok=B9dgoIdm"}}},"media_ids":["478401","408421"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/amplifier.gatech.edu\/articles\/2015\/12\/watch-out-political-fallout-paris-climate-accord","title":"Brown\u0027s piece in The Amplifier"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.cepl.gatech.edu\/node\/89","title":"Brown\u0027s piece on the CEPL blog"}],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"categories":[{"id":"144","name":"Energy"}],"keywords":[{"id":"831","name":"climate change"},{"id":"832","name":"greenhouse gas"},{"id":"166890","name":"sustainability"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERebecca Keane\u003Cbr \/\u003EDirector of Communications\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E404.894.1720\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Erebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}