Earthjustice is feeling merry today – and it’s not just the holidays. In part to our litigation, today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced timetables for setting greenhouse gas emission limits for power plants and oil refineries. In a press call making the announcement, Gina McCarthy—EPA’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation – explained that power plants and oil refineries are “two of the largest stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions.”

She said the timetables were a “sensible and collaborative approach to integrating greenhouse gas pollution into our regulatory program.”

Earthjustice represented the Environmental Defense Fund and Sierra Club in a 2006 lawsuit challenging EPA’s most recent power plant standards and represents Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Integrity Project in a 2008 lawsuit that led to today’s agreement on the timetable for refinery standards. Here is what Earthjustice attorney Tim Ballo had to say:

“The EPA has a legal duty to respond to the very real dangers of global warming pollution by setting strong limits on carbon pollution from power plants and refineries. These are the nation’s biggest industrial sources of global warming pollution and deserve top priority.”