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For Immediate Release, December 23, 2010

Contact:  Kassie Siegel, (760) 366-2232 x 302, ksiegel@biologicaldiversity.org

EPA Takes Important Step Toward Curbing Warming Under Clean Air Act, But Dramatic Pollution Reductions Needed More Quickly

WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity issued the following statement today from Climate Law Institute Director Kassie Siegel on today’s announcement that the Environmental Protection Agency will finally set industry-wide limits for greenhouse gas pollution from refineries and power plants under the “new source performance standards” of the Clean Air Act:

“Today’s announcement once again demonstrates the power of the Clean Air Act to address our nation’s most challenging environmental problem: global warming. We applaud the EPA for moving forward to implement this important program for refineries and power plants. Now we need the Obama administration to adopt strong standards for these industries, expand the program to cover other industrial sectors, and move more quickly and more forcefully to implement the Clean Air Act’s other powerful tools before it is simply too late.

“With the past decade going down as the warmest on record and dramatic weather events plaguing the globe, it has become clear that global warming is not some distant future problem. Global warming is here, and its devastating effects are being felt now. We don’t have time to wait to act. The Obama government already has the legal tools to achieve deep and rapid greenhouse pollution reductions from major polluters, consistent with what science demands, through the Clean Air Act. We simply need them to do so.”


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