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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowCoal-dependent Indiana will have to cut its carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2030 under new requirements outlined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Indiana has three years to come up with a plan to achieve the reductions, which were announced Monday by the EPA.
Gov. Mike Pence said the state "will oppose these regulations using every means available.”
“Once again, the Obama Administration is advancing its anti-coal agenda without regard for the impact on the U.S. economy or American workers," he said in a prepared statement.
Jodi Perras of the Indiana Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign said the goal is "doable." She said most Indiana power plants are aging and will need to be replaced soon anyway.
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce called the requirements "potentially devastating" to the state because they could boost electricity costs by as much as 80 percent.
“These EPA regulations also will barely even move the needle toward reducing carbon emissions (not even by 2 percent, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy), but they will deal a tangible blow to the national and state economies,” Indiana Chamber CEO Kevin Brinegar said in a prepared statement.
Indiana gets 84 percent of its electricity from coal-fired power.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the plan is "tailored to each state's circumstances."
The EPA said Indiana already has taken steps to reduce carbon emissions.
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