A federal Court of Appeals should uphold the Environmental Protection Agency’s sensible, legal and fair Clean Power Plan, and reject polluters’ deeply flawed arguments against the landmark plan to curb dangerous power plant carbon pollution, clean air legal experts said yesterday.

In a telephone briefing today, attorneys for Earthjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club discussed the brief they are filing in support of the legality of the Clean Power Plan. The centerpiece of the administration’s climate action plan, it sets the first-ever limits on the largest source of climate-changing pollution. 

Their roughly 40-page legal brief will be filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The brief refutes claims by polluters and their allies that have filed suit to invalidate the Clean Power Plan. 

The clean air advocates’ brief outlines EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act to cut power plant carbon pollution and supports EPA’s approach to making those reductions using methods already widely used in the power industry.  It also shows that far from radically transforming the power sector, as critics claim, the Clean Power Plan will build on trends already underway, expanding clean energy and reducing the burning of polluting fossil fuels.

“While fossil fuel interests might wish otherwise, time runs only forward, not back,” said Howard I. Fox, counsel for Earthjustice. “Steady, unstoppable progress to a clean energy future is already underway, and the Clean Power Plan builds on that progress with readily achievable cuts in the carbon pollution that is threatening our climate and communities.” 

Sean Donahue, counsel for Environmental Defense Fund, said, “The Clean Power Plan has a solid foundation in America’s clean air laws. It’s also supported by a robust record, and is vitally important to our efforts to protect the health and safety of our communities from climate change. We look forward to presenting the strongest possible case for the Clean Power Plan to the court.”

Joanne Spalding, Chief Climate Counsel at the Sierra Club, said, “The Clean Power Plan offers significant public health and economic benefits, enjoys wide majorities of support across the country, and is rooted in the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision finding that the EPA has the authority under the Clean Air Act to limit carbon pollution from power plants. We are confident the Plan will ultimately prevail in the courts and that its full benefits will be implemented nationwide.”

David Doniger, lead attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, “The polluters and their allies are peddling a grab-bag of meritless legal arguments with one desperate goal: hobbling EPA’s ability under the Clean Air Act to cut carbon pollution from power plants, the largest source of climate-changing pollution. The Clean Power Plan stands on solid legal ground. And it’s a fair and flexible plan for states and the power industry to address the central environmental threat of our time before it’s too late.”

The groups, together with a coalition of climate and clean air advocacy groups, are filing their intervenors’ brief on Tuesday, and it will be available online.

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Background:

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 2 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC. 

Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people’s health; to preserve magnificent places and wildlife; to advance clean energy; and to combat climate change. (www.earthjustice.org, Twitter @Earthjustice)

Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), a leading international nonprofit organization, creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. Connect with us on EDF Voices, Twitter and Facebook.

Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 2.4 million members and supporters nationwide. In addition to creating opportunities for people of all ages, levels and locations to have meaningful outdoor experiences, the Sierra Club works to safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and litigation. For more information, visit http://www.sierraclub.org

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