Greetings! Last week, President Obama announced the finalization of America's Clean Power Plan -- the biggest step we've ever taken to combat climate change. This plan sets the first-ever carbon pollution standards for power plants, while providing states and utilities with the flexibility they need to meet those standards.
As the President stressed in his remarks, climate change affects all communities, especially low-income communities. Communities of color are more vulnerable to the impacts of poor air quality due to unequal access to quality health care and the disproportionate rate of pollution in areas in which they work, live, and play.
Did you know?
- 28 million Latinos live in areas with unhealthy air -- and climate change is expected to exacerbate already dangerous air quality increasing asthma attacks.
- Additionally, more than 3.6 million Latinos in the U.S. are living with asthma. This includes one in every ten Hispanic children, who are 40 percent more likely to die of the chronic condition.
Climate change has negative effects on our communities, our health, and more importantly our planet. We have a moral obligation to act so that we can leave our children a planet that's not polluted or damaged; keep energy affordable and reliable; support innovation; and drive a strong, growing economy.
In particular, the Clean Power Plan:
- Is a major victory for public health, by 2030, when combined with other policies to increase clean energy, will reduce premature deaths from power plant emissions by nearly 90 percent
- Sets flexible and achievable standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissionsby 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, 9 percent more ambitious than the proposal
- Ensures more aggressive investment in clean energy technologies than the proposed rule, resulting in 30 percent more renewable energy generation in 2030 and continuing to lower the costs of renewable energy
- Creates tens of thousands of jobs while ensuring grid reliability
- Saves the average American family nearly $85 on their yearly energy bill, saving enough energy to power 30 million homes
- Prioritizes the deployment of energy efficiency improvements in low-income communities that need it most early in the program through a Clean Energy Incentive Program
- Continues American leadership on climate change by keeping us on track to meet the U.S. 2020 and 2025 emissions targets.
The Clean Power Plan is a landmark action to protect public health, reduce energy bills for households and businesses, create American jobs, and bring clean power to communities across the country, especially low-income communities. For more information, visit WhiteHouse.gov/Climate-Change -- and click here to learn on how climate change affects the Latino community. For the Clean Power Plan resources in Spanish, click here.
Administration Updates
President Obama, Congressman John Lewis, and Others Mark the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act
Fifty years ago, on August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law -- a landmark piece of legislation breaking down barriers across the South that prevented countless African Americans from voting.
Last week, President Obama hosted a discussion at the White House to mark the Act's 50th anniversary, featuring Congressman John Lewis, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry, and others.
DACAmented Teachers: Educating and Enriching Their Communities
Last month, the White House honored nine educators who received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) as "Champions of Change." This event recognized nine young leaders in the field of education that are also DACA recipients, who have been strong role models for students and families, as well as change agents within their communities.
To read more on this event and these remarkable "Champions of Change," click here.
HUD Announces Final Rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro announced a new rule which will equip local communities with the tools they need in order to meet their fair housing obligations. This rule marks a major expansion in the Housing and Urban Development's efforts to roll back the effects of housing discrimination and ensure that affordable housing is high quality and distributed fairly and justly. President Obama described the new rules as keeping, "This a country where kids from every background can grow up knowing that no matter who you are, what you look like, or where you live, you can write your own story."
Economic Costs of Disadvantaged Youth and High-Return Opportunities for Change
Addressing opportunity in another area, the White House Council on Economic Advisers produced a new report on the economic costs of disadvantaged youth and presented strategies on the high-return opportunities for change in communities across the country. Creating more opportunities for disadvantaged youth is a key element in making a more inclusive economy that works for Latinos as well as all of the other communities in our nation.
ConnectHome: Coming Together to Ensure Digital Opportunity for All Americans
The President announced a new program, ConnectHome, which, through partnerships between local communities, the private sector, and the federal government, will provide, as a pilot program, high-speed broadband internet access to over 275,000 low-income households in twenty-eight communities across the country, from San Antonio, Texas to Fresno, California, to Springfield, Massachusetts. In today's global and interconnected economy, it is critical that everyone is able to access the internet, and this initiative is a major step towards ensuring that everyone has access to the opportunities that the internet makes available. |
