Yesterday's debate in the U.S. Senate shows that a majority of senators will not allow the Clean Air Act to be gutted. The Supreme Court has already spoken that if carbon emissions endanger public health and welfare, the EPA must act. After a very extensive scientific inquiry, EPA made its historic finding that carbon pollution is a danger to the public. Senators Klobuchar and Franken should be proud of their vote for clean air and protection of people and the planet.

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The Clean Air Act is still under attack, and it's more important than ever to defend it.

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Another supporter of climate change legislation has now stepped forward - the autoworkers. According to the Union of Auto Workers (UAW), cleaner cars and strong climate policy means more jobs for American autoworkers. The UAW recently released a report prepared in conjunction with the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Center for American Progress called Driving Growth: How Clean Cars and Climate Policy Can Create Jobs. "This study shows that increasing automotive fuel efficiency will create jobs," said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. According to the study, cleaner cars and strong policy could create as many as 150,000 American jobs.

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Yesterday, 13 U.S. Senators, including Al Franken from Minnesota, signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Reid, urging him to ensure that legislation does not weaken the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to protect human health by regulating coal-fired power plants and other global warming polluters.

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Efforts are afoot in Washington, DC - particularly in the U.S. Senate - that would dramatically impair national work under the Clean Air Act to reduce global warming pollution from cars and trucks and industry. Here's what's at stake: on April 2, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court found that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act.  In December 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued findings that the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming constitute a danger to public health and welfare here in the United States. Some of those human health impacts include mortality from more frequent and intense heat waves and degraded air quality that negatively impacts people with respiratory diseases and asthma. The worst of the health impacts are likely to be felt by the very young and older Americans - children and senior citizens - particularly in urban areas and among low income populations. The EPA findings are a crucial step in work to require reductions in global warming pollution.

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One of our nation's most valuable environmental laws is under attack by members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. Their target: the Clean Air Act. In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined, based on an in-depth scientific evidence, that global warming pollutants endanger human health and welfare, including right here in the United States. Some of our federal elected officials are working to overturn that scientific finding and prevent policy that should help us protect public health into a toothless law on the crucial issue of lowering global warming pollution.

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Our nation's Clean Air Act is under attack, putting our health at risk and jeopardizing action to jumpstart a clean energy economy and reduce our dependence on oil. Today Fresh Energy joined with 37 other local and national public interest organizations in sending a letter to the leadership of the U.S. Senate. Our message is that Congress must not stand in the way of progress, but should oppose Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski's effort to undermine the heart of the Clean Air Act. Instead, we need to use the Clean Air Act to reduce global warming pollutants. For ideas on how you can take action to make positive change, take a look at the resources on our Take Action page.

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Excerpts from the EPA release December 7, 2009 with my emphasis added:

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The EPA announced a proposed rule on September 30 that would require the use of best technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from large facilities. Under the rule, about 14,000 very large sources of greenhouse gases, those emitting more than 25,000 tons per year, would need to obtain operating permits that include global warming emissions. Those large facilities include power plants, refineries, and some large factories, but exclude farms and small businesses.

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