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Washington, DC – The United States Supreme Court denied requests yesterday from polluters to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) power plant pollution safeguards, which protect millions of people from climate-destabilizing and health-harming air pollution.
In response, Moms Co-Founder and Environmental Defense Fund’s General Counsel Vickie Patton released the following statement:
“The Supreme Court today rejected cynical requests to use its shadow docket to block EPA protections that will reduce the power plant climate pollution that threatens millions of people.
“People across America are suffering through intensifying storms and other disasters because of climate change. EPA – as specifically required by Congress – set reasonable and achievable standards to reduce the pollution that causes climate change from one of its largest sources, fossil fuel-burning power plants. Power plants have a wide variety of options to comply with the standards – options that are pollution-free, reliable, and cost-effective. The good news is that the clean solutions are the lowest-cost solutions.
“When judges on the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, including a former senior Trump White House official, unanimously rejected requests for an emergency stay of EPA’s commonsense safeguards, opponents asked the Supreme Court to rule in their favor from its shadow docket – before any court could fully hear the case and weigh all the evidence. Today, the Supreme Court rejected that end run around our country’s bedrock legal processes.
“EPA’s protections will help address dangerous pollution, save people money, and create high quality jobs.”
Moms Clean Air Force Wisconsin Field Organizer Jayne Black also released a statement:
“Fossil fuel power plants are a major source of the pollution behind the climate crisis, which is bringing hotter temperatures and dangerous flooding to Wisconsin. That’s why we need these critical EPA protections—they work to address the pollution contributing to climate disasters and safeguard a healthier future for our families.”