Clean Air News

For Immediate Release: December 7, 2009

Contact: Pete Dronkers, Environment Nevada, Pete@EvironmentNevada.org, (702) 382-7522

EPA’s Climate Announcement: Most Significant Step Yet

Las Vegas, NV – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today will finalize its proposed finding that carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations, setting the stage for regulating the pollutants under the Clean Air Act.  The announcement comes as world leaders kick off two weeks of negotiations in Copenhagen on a global climate treaty.

“This is the most significant step the federal government has taken on global warming.  The Clean Air Act is tried and true.  It has a nearly 40-year track record of cost-effectively cutting dangerous pollution to protect our health and environment.  EPA is now putting this proven law to work as one critical tool in the fight against global warming,” said Environment Nevada’s Pete Dronkers.

More than two and a half years ago, the Supreme Court ordered the EPA to determine if global warming pollution threatens public health or welfare – a conclusion supported by a worldwide scientific consensus.  Today’s action comes in response to that decision and puts EPA on track to take long-overdue steps to reduce global warming pollution from cars, coal-fired power plants, and other large pollution sources under the Clean Air Act.

“The stage is now set for EPA to hold the biggest global warming polluters accountable.  The Senate also must act to set overall pollution-reduction goals and to accelerate the move to clean energy, but it’s up to EPA to crack down on pollution from cars and mega industrial polluters, like coal-fired power plants.  By improving energy efficiency and moving to clean, renewable energy, America can cut global warming pollution and transition to clean energy sources that don’t harm the environment, will never run out, and create millions of new jobs,” said Dronkers

“We applaud President Obama and EPA Administrator Jackson for complying with the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision and embracing the basic facts on global warming that scientists around the world have acknowledged for years.  The Obama administration has put law and science back at the forefront of environmental policy,” concluded Dronkers

The following is the timeline leading up to today’s decision:

• 1999: EPA was first petitioned to regulate global warming pollutants from new cars and light trucks under the Clean Air Act.
• 2003: The Bush EPA denied the petition.
• April 2007: The Supreme Court found, in Massachusetts v. EPA, that global warming pollutants are pollutants under the Clean Air Act, and held that EPA must determine whether these pollutants from new motor vehicles cause or contribute to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.
• December 2007: The Bush EPA prepared a proposal finding that global warming pollutants endanger public welfare, but the White House did not allow the proposal to be released.
• April 2009: The Obama EPA released its proposed finding, which the agency is finalizing today.

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Environment Nevada is a state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organization.