Washington, D.C. —

President Obama’s speech today at Georgetown University laid out his plan to address climate change.

This is welcome news, especially for Americans who have been working for decades to clean up our air pollution using the power of the Clean Air Act, the law that protects our health and our planet.

Earthjustice President Trip Van Noppen said:

“President Obama’s plan to address climate change is welcome news that deserves widespread support. Continuing to fill our atmosphere with carbon pollution is immoral. We have a responsibility to current and future generations to hand down a livable planet. We must begin now to fulfill our obligation.

“Climate-related disasters such as extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy, droughts in the Midwest, and the emergence of year-round fire seasons in the west, are now impacting every region of the country. Last year’s drought spurred increases in food prices that impact every American family and cleaning up after natural disasters is already costing Americans billions of dollars. We simply can’t afford not to address this problem.

“Two of the actions in the president’s plan are likely to be particularly effective. The first is reducing carbon pollution from our dirtiest power plants, which is long overdue. These plants, some of which date all the way back to the 1940’s, are responsible for the lion’s share of the nation’s carbon pollution and currently operate without any carbon pollution controls. Secondly, the president’s plan to increase efficiency of the appliances we use every day will reduce our carbon pollution while saving consumers money by lowering operating costs.

“At the same time, a genuine commitment to developing clean energy will create new jobs and boost our economy. It’s time to focus our best efforts on achieving a clean energy future, so we can stop blowing the tops off of mountains to fire our power plants, stop threatening people’s drinking water with fracking and coal ash, and stop drilling in dangerous Arctic seas to fuel our cars.”