SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER

Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.

* indicates required
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Suzanne Struglinski, 202-289-2387, sstruglinski@nrdc.org

U.S. Appeals Court Upholds EPA Carbon Pollution Limits

NRDC: "A Resounding Victory for Science, Law and Common Sense"

WASHINGTON

The federal appeals court in Washington today delivered a resounding victory for science, the rule of law, and common sense by upholding the Environmental Protection Agency's landmark actions to curb the dangerous carbon pollution driving climate change.

"This is a huge victory for our children's future. These rulings clear the way for EPA to keep moving forward under the Clean Air Act to limit carbon pollution from motor vehicles, new power plants, and other big industrial sources," said David Doniger, senior attorney for the Climate and Clean Air Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In an unanimous opinion issued today covering four cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld EPA's "endangerment" determination, its clean car standards, and its pollution permit requirements for big new industrial facilities.

NRDC is among the environmental and state intervenors that filed briefs in support of the EPA.

"The court upheld the agency's careful determination, based on a mountain of scientific evidence, that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping pollutants threaten our health and our planet," Doniger said.

The three-judge panel also upheld the Obama administration's first set of clean car and fuel economy standards, issued jointly by EPA and the Transportation Department in 2009. This gives EPA the green light to finalize a the second round of clean car standards later this summer that will cut new cars' carbon pollution in half and double their fuel efficiency to 54.5 mpg by 2025.

These historic agreements with the auto industry, auto workers, states and environmental group will cut carbon pollution, create jobs, and save consumers thousands of dollars at the pump.

EPA also is moving to complete the first national limits on carbon pollution from new power plants, proposed in April. More than 2 million Americans have raised their voices in public comments supporting carbon pollution standards for both new and existing power plants.

For additional background information on these cases see this previous blog post from David Doniger.

For more background information on carbon emissions, see this clean air web page: https://www.nrdc.org/air/

NRDC works to safeguard the earth--its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. We combine the power of more than three million members and online activists with the expertise of some 700 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water, and the wild.

(212) 727-2700