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As Washington commences debate on a new plan to cut carbon emissions by 30 percent, the backdrop for the EPA announcement didn't lend confidence. 

The announcement was also critiqued for appearing to be out of some B-roll footage  from the new X-Men movie.

As The Wire noted on Sunday, the plan has been called both "the strongest action ever taken by the United States government to fight climate change" as well as a concession to the coal industry because the new regulations are based on 2005 numbers. That was the highest year for carbon emissions on record, meaning that the proposed 30 percent drop will only be a 15 percent drop against today's numbers.

Speaking with the New York Times, Ted Nordhaus, the chairman of an environmental think tank called the Breakthrough Institute, summed up the lukewarm sentiment thusly:

Is it enough to stop climate change? No. No political leader in the world has a serious agenda to do that.”

This morning, Democrats in red states already seemed prepared to deal with it as a political issue. Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, who is trying to take Mitch McConnell's Senate seat this fall, issued a statement condemning the plan. 

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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