"Clean Power Plan Exempts Major CO2 Emitters"

"The proposed Clean Power Plan, which aims to slash carbon emissions from existing electric power plants burning fossil fuel, may allow some of the most polluting coal-fired power plants in the country to continue operating without having to slash their emissions.

All of those plants are on Indian reservations in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, and their CO2 emisions are excluded from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's calculations of the carbon emissions rate cut goal for the state in which each of those plants exists.

By 2030, the U.S. would see carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants using fossil fuels fall by 30 percent below 2005 levels if the Clean Power Plan, announced on June 2, is finalized in 2015."

Bobby Magill reports for Climate Central June 17, 2014.