SEEC Asks: GOP, What is Your Plan for Climate Change?

Washington, D.C.—Today the House Republican majority passed the Polluter Protection Act, yet another measure that would protect polluters by barring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from taking necessary action to reduce carbon pollution from power plants.

In the 2007 decision Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court found that if EPA determined that greenhouse gases endanger public health and the environment, EPA has the authority and responsibility to take action.

It is settled science that carbon pollution is the principal driver behind our changing climate. We also know power plants emit more than any other source and they are allowed to do so without any limitation. So why is it Republicans continue their hackneyed assault on the EPA without providing any solutions of their own?

In response to the bill passage, members of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) issued the following statement:

“Today, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives issued yet another attack on American public health and welfare by refusing to seriously address our changing climate.

“Climate change is here now. Its impacts are sweeping across our country in the form of exacerbated and unprecedented droughts, floods, and wildfires. Our constituents are paying its costs with their health and their wallets. We cannot and should not allow this.

“Democrats have proposed pragmatic solutions to combat climate change that would grow our economy, improve our health, and strengthen our national security. Sadly, each time Republicans respond by saying no. When will they provide a solution? When will they fulfill their responsibility to protect the American people?

“Until this anti-environmental Congress takes action to address this issue, the EPA, under the authority granted to it by the Clean Air Act and re-affirmed by the Supreme Court, must act to protect the public. Today, Republicans passed a bill that would threaten all of that, leaving us without any plan to address climate change.

“Republicans need to stop playing politics with this issue and join us in putting forward real solutions to a very serious and present problem.”