EPA: Global Warming Pollution Threatens Public Health and Welfare

Sierra Club Launches “Big Picture” Effort to Support Obama Action

April 17, 2009 -- Washington, D.C.—The Environmental Protection Agency today issued a finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases represent a significant threat to public health and welfare. Today's "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 denial. EPA now has both the authority and the obligation to regulate global warming pollution, with concrete action on motor vehicle emissions expected soon.

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"Where 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," said David Bookbinder, Sierra Club Chief Climate Counsel. "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."

Today's announcement is just the latest move underscoring the administration's comprehensive approach to building the clean energy economy. To demonstrate support for the Obama administration's ambitious plans for rulemaking, the Sierra Club will be mobilizing its activists through the new "Big Picture" campaign.

"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," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director.

Entitled "The Big Picture: Help Obama Build Our Clean Energy Future" the grassroots effort will employ online and off-line tactics to generate public comments and support for the numerous administrative findings, rules and regulations expected over the coming months and years.

"From cleaner cars and cleaner smokestacks to mining pollution and directly addressing carbon pollution, all of these pieces fit together to form the Big Picture—a clean energy future that transforms our economy and protects the planet," said Pope.

For more information on the Big Picture campaign, please visit www.sierraclub.org/bigpicture.

Source: Sierra Club