EPA IGNORES GLOBAL WARMING POLLUTION FROM POWER PLANTS
May 1, 2006
Contact: Jana Milford, 303-447-7200 , Vickie Patton, 303-447-7215
A coalition of ten states and three environmental organizations took legal action today to remedy the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) failure to limit the global warming gases from the nation’s largest source of pollution. The lawsuits challenge Clean Air Act rules issued on February 27, 2006 that were required to establish comprehensive emission standards for new coal-fired power plants. In the rulemaking, EPA refused to establish standards for global warming pollution despite the fact that coal-fired power plants are the nation’s largest source of heat-trapping gases.
Environmental Defense also released new analysis today, based on government data, showing that the global warming pollution from power plants is projected to increase dramatically over the next 25 years.
“By ignoring the global warming pollution from power plants, EPA has left Americans with no solutions and no defense against the nation’s biggest source of global warming gases” said Environmental Defense senior scientist Dr. Jana Milford. “The government’s own data project that annual global warming pollution from power plants will increase by over 1 billion tons by the time that today’s children reach adulthood, comparable to the heat-trapping pollution from nearly 200 million cars.”
The ten states filing a legal challenge today are: California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. Environmental Defense, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council also filed a legal challenge with representation by Earthjustice.