Americans want climate action. Broad, diverse interests are supporting America’s Clean Power Plan (Tweet this) in litigation pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The following groups and individuals last week filed legal briefs to support the most important and ambitious plan ever to combat the pollution that is fueling climate disruption:
- The nation’s leading legal, electricity grid, science and policy experts including: Leon Billings and Tom Jorling (principal drafters of the 1970 Clean Air Act), former EPA Administrators William Ruckelshaus and William Reilly (who served under Presidents Nixon, Reagan and George H.W. Bush) represented by Harvard Law’s Jody Freeman and Richard Lazarus, the Institute for Policy Integrity represented by NYU Law Dean Emeritus Richard Revesz, former state energy and environmental officials including Larry Soward (Commissioner at the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality under Texas Governor Rick Perry), top climate scientists, and premier electric grid experts
- Leading businesses: Power companies that produce about 10 percent of our nation’s electricity, and prominent businesses that consume large quantities of energy and strongly support expansive clean energy across the national grid including Adobe, Amazon, Apple, Google, IKEA, Mars, and Microsoft
- Numerous companies that are providing cost-effective low- and zero- carbon solutions that are members of the Advanced Energy Economy, American Wind Energy Association and Solar Energy Industries Association, representing more than 3,000 companies and organizations in the advanced energy sector, a $200 billion industry in the United States
- 25 national and state business associations including American Sustainable Business Council, U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., and business associations in states such as West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio that are litigating against the Clean Power Plan
- 18 states and 60 cities that are deploying solutions to address climate change and that are “first responders” in addressing its grim effects, including major cities in states that are litigating against these protections
- Consumers Union and other organizations addressing the economic benefits for consumers and low income ratepayers from expansive, low cost clean energy solutions
- Experts on the importance of climate action to protect human health such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, to national and global security including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and to fundamental tenets of morality including 41 faith communities such as the National Council of Churches and the Catholic Climate Covenant
- Current and former members of Congress, including 36 sitting Senators and 157 members of the House
- A coalition of national, regional and state health and environmental organizations
These submissions to the court reflect deep expertise and an array of important perspectives. The briefs are available here.