Support of the EPA Clean Power Plant is necessary to address carbon pollution and to save Maine from unpredictable, dangerous weather and other threats to the way life should be.

Maple syrup is a part of Maine culture, without which we could not imagine living here. I mean, who wouldn’t want to sit down and enjoy pancakes with Maine maple syrup for breakfast?

But the effects of climate change, especially the frigid weather and overflow of snow we have rarely seen before, decrease the production of one of the best Maine natural products in significant amounts.

But not everything is lost yet. The good news is that Environmental Protection Agency proposed common-sense limits on power plants to reduce greenhouse grasses emissions, thus helping to address the urgently pressing issues of climate change. Power plants are the single largest source of carbon pollution in this country. Imagine: the 50 dirtiest power plants in the United States emit more carbon each year than all but six other countries.

That is why the EPA proposed to cut carbon pollution from power plants 30 percent by 2030.

This is not an unreasonable number, and people in the United States know it. By now, already 4 million Americans supported these much-needed limits on carbon pollution. Moreover, 600 elected officials and more than 50,000 Mainers have raised their voices in support of the plan. People everywhere know that it is important to act on climate change.

The Supreme Court required the EPA to protect the United States from carbon pollution, and so are we, the people living in Maine, required to protect our state, including the maple syrup we put on our pancakes.

Ester Topolarova

Waterville

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