Obama heads to Las Vegas for the Clean Energy Summit

Updated
Obama Heads To Las Vegas For The Clean Energy Summit
Obama Heads To Las Vegas For The Clean Energy Summit

President Obama is in Las Vegas on Monday for the eighth annual National Clean Energy Summit.

He's expected to deliver a keynote speech about his administration's recent and controversial "Clean Power Plan" -- which, according to a White House Press release aims to combat climate change by decreasing the amount of carbon pollution emitted from power plants by more than 30 percent by 2030.

READ MORE SPECIAL COVERAGE ON CLEAN AIR: How President Obama's climate change plan is panning out

The plan is the result of America setting some unfortunate personal records: 2015 is on track to be the country's warmest year yet and the country's wildfire seasons are lasting longer than ever.

The Clean Power Plan will let states set their own plans for reaching this ambitious reduction goal.

See images from President Obama's initial announcement:

Obama is focusing on transitioning from coal-fired power plants to more renewable energy sources such as natural gas, solar, wind.

But critics claim the president's plan will do more harm than good.

Las Vegas Review Journal called the plan's goal arbitrary in an editorial piece, claiming, "The president has ordered a complete restructuring of the American energy structure through regulatory fiat...This will dramatically increase power costs, stifle economic growth, reduce standards of living and decrease the reliability of the power grid."

However, earlier this year the Department of Energy came out with a report suggesting that wind energy has the potential to become one of America's top energy sources and save consumers money.

Take a look at the countries with the most CO2 emissions:

Here's Tom Kiernan the CEO of the American Wind Energy Association speaking with MSNBC ahead of the summit:

"We'll be increasing the number of jobs in the U.S., helping the economy fivefold, increasing number of jobs and frankly we got three states already: Kansas, Iowa and South Dakota that are already generating over 20% of their electricity from wind energy. We're already proving that we're a reliable contributor to the grid. As my kids would say: We got this."

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