Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment Welcomes Announcement of Clean Power Plan

The Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment applauds the final version of the Clean Power Plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.  In addition to contributing to climate mitigation, these essential regulations, which for the first time set limits on carbon pollution from power generation, will bring large public health benefits. As a coalition of Catholic investors who have engaged with corporations on these issues for decades, we recognize that these regulations will protect the most vulnerable among us, while protecting our economy for long-term value creation.

In his recent encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, Pope Francis calls on all people to recognize that “the climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all.”  The Clean Power Plan is a step towards this recognition and towards the establishment of more just relationships among people and between humanity and our planet.

We are especially pleased that the final version of the regulations incorporates feedback from the public comment we submitted to the EPA in coordination with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. In particular, we welcome the emphasis of the final rules on increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy to meet established state targets, through appropriate incentives, as well as the heightened ambition of the plan to achieve 32%, rather than 30%, emissions reductions by 2030.  These rules will spur innovation and provide economic opportunity as low-cost, low carbon technologies are developed and adopted. We are confident that the utilities in which we are invested can not only meet, but even exceed these targets, and that these rules will mark a turning point in electricity markets. We encourage our portfolio companies to publicly accept the final rule and work with their states toward robust implementation.