EPA On Verge of Important Step Toward First Carbon Regs

Politico is reporting today that  the Environmental Protection Agency is about to announce key deadlines for moving forward with the first ever carbon regulations.  These rules will require polluters to start cleaning up their power plants and refineries in order to safeguard our climate, our wildlife and our future.

EPA is getting serious about climate change. (Photo from iStock)

NWF’s Joe Mendelson will have more to say here at Wildlife Promise when the news is official, but he welcomed the development reported in Politico.

EPA will rightly use its Clean Air Act authority to rein in air pollution and it is time for the agency to follow the directives of both Congress and the Supreme Court to start tackling global warming pollution. The EPA’s reasonable and thoughtful steps will set the U.S. on the path to reducing carbon pollution from some of our biggest emitters.”

While EPA’s actions to take on the climate crisis are indeed thoughtful and reasonable, conservation groups including NWF are gearing up for a tough fight with climate deniers in the new Congress that convenes next year.

NWF’s Jeremy Symons told me today:

Polluters will work with their allies in Congress to dislodge us.  But these fights in Congress will be fought in the context of a broader global warming solution. This is about fundamental change that is long overdue.  The fight ahead is about finally holding polluters accountable so we can stop treating our sky like an open sewer and stop running up the planetary deficit on our kids and grandkids.”

NWF members helped bring about this expected victory, and we’ll be calling upon you again in the new year to beat back polluters and keep the focus on clean energy solutions to the climate crisis.

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Published: December 22, 2010