Obama officials: Power plant rule part of a ‘moral obligation’

World leaders have a “moral obligation” to fight climate change, and top Obama aides are making good on that obligation with its climate rule for power plants, two administration officials write in a new blog post.

Environmental Protection Agency head Gina McCarthy and Ambassador to the Vatican Ken Hackett wrote Monday that the EPA’s carbon rule fits with Pope Francis’s moral call to action on climate change released last month.

{mosads}“He makes clear our moral obligation to prevent climate impacts that threaten God’s creation, especially for those most vulnerable,” McCarthy and Hackett wrote in the post on the EPA’s blog and The Huffington Post.

The officials lay out various harms of climate change, such as the effects of higher sea levels on the island nation of Tuvalu and increased extreme weather throughout the world.

“For all these reasons, the U.S. government, through the EPA, is taking steps to make good on our moral obligation,” they wrote. “Later this summer, the agency will finalize a rule to curb the carbon pollution fueling climate change from our nation’s largest source — power plants.”

McCarthy, a Catholic, has highlighted Francis’s encyclical in recent weeks to promote the carbon rules, which will seek a 30-percent cut in the power sector’s carbon by 2030.

She also traveled to Vatican City in January to meet with top church officials and discuss Francis’s encyclical and administration officials’ work on climate, including the power plant rules.