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EPA Takes Action to Regulate Global Warming Pollution
Case Updates:
December 8, 2009
On December 7, 2009, the Obama administration finalized the finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases represent a significant threat to public health and welfare, a move that opens the door to new emissions regulations for U.S. power plants.
As Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club said, "President Obama sees the Big Picture—by shifting to clean energy, and cracking down on the corporations that pollute the water we drink and the air we breathe, we can restore our economy to prosperity and reduce our dependence on oil and coal, all while tackling global warming."
April 17, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took a huge step towards curbing global warming emissions, when on April 17, 2009, it issued a finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases represent a significant threat to public health and welfare. The "endangerment finding," based on tens of thousands of public comments and years of work by EPA's career staff and scientists, ends more than two years of uncertainty following the Supreme Court's landmark Massachusetts v. EPA decision and brings to a close the Bush Administration era of climate change denial. EPA now has both the authority and the obligation to regulate global warming pollution, with concrete action on motor vehicle emissions expected soon.
As David Bookbinder, Sierra Club Chief Climate Counsel, said, "[w]here the Bush administration lagged, the Obama administration is now leading. There is no longer a question of if or even when the U.S. will act on global warming. We are doing so now. President Obama is taking it to the hoop when it comes to our most pressing problems. This step will allow the administration to move forward while continuing to work with Congress to pass a strong clean energy jobs and climate plan."
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