News from Capitol Hill: SPE Leader Presents Co-Benefits of Power Plant Standards

Kathy Fallon Lambert, Director of the Science Policy Exchange, led a team of scientists that gave a briefing to the U.S. House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) on the air quality, health, and environmental consequences of different types of power plant carbon standards. The briefing, held in Washington DC on February 6, 2018, featured a study by Lambert and colleagues from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston University, Syracuse University, and Resources for the Future.

The study found that an "inside the fence line" approach for reducing carbon from power plants solely by improving power plant efficiency could actually cause more conventional air pollution and premature deaths than doing nothing whereas a "beyond the fence line" approach that allows flexible compliance measures such as switching to renewable energy could generate substantial health and air quality benefits.

• Learn more about the team's research.