Coalition of Investors Urges Senate To Support Clean Air Act Rule
Letter To Senate Signed By 34 Investors With Over $200 Billion Under Management
6/11/2012
June 12, 2012///Bethesda, MD///A coalition of investors is calling on U.S Senators to uphold a recently established Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Act Rule. The investors are urging the Senate to oppose Senator James Inhofe’s (R-OK) effort to prevent the EPA from implementing the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants. The rule would require significant reductions in power plant emissions, mostly by upgrading and retrofitting the older facilities that had been grandfathered by the original Clean Air Act.
The investor letter makes the case that the Mercury and Air Toxics rule will not only improve health and protect the environment, but will also create jobs. Experts estimate that the capital investments required to comply with these two Clean Air Act rules will add nearly 1.5 million jobs, or nearly 300,000 jobs per year on average over the next five years. Investment in air pollution control projects will create construction and manufacturing jobs with an impact across an industry supply chain with over 175 companies in 37 states.
“These rules will drive improved public health and create high-paying construction, installation, engineering, and manufacturing jobs, while retrofitting outdated, high-polluting power plants,” says Stu Dalheim, Vice President for Shareholder Advocacy at Calvert Investments. “We believe the electric power industry is well-positioned to comply with the rules without threatening electric system reliability.”
The coalition of investors points out that most of the largest coal-based electric power companies have stated that they are prepared to meet the requirements of the new rule, having made significant investments and improvements already. Given the major health benefits predicted and the economic activity that the required investment in power plant upgrades will generate, the EPA must be allowed to move forward with the rule, argue the investors.
The letter was coordinated by Calvert Investments, a member of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a project of the non-profit organization, Ceres. Other signatories to the letter include a number of other INCR members, such as Walden Asset Management, Domini Social Investments LLC, and F&C Management Ltd.