Today, the House Energy and Power Subcommittee passed a Dirty Air Act to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from limiting the carbon dioxide pollution of the nation’s biggest polluters. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY), now moves to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Upton, for a full committee vote.

The following is a statement by Earthjustice Senior Legislative Representative Sarah Saylor:

“Today‘s subcommittee vote aims to turn back the clock on carbon dioxide pollution limits that protect all Americans, to block the Environmental Protection Agency from being able to protect the American people in carrying out these pollution controls, which are backed by strong science and were adopted to safeguard our lives and our future.

“Denying science, repealing health-based pollution controls, and undoing progress will undermine clean air today and for future generations. Keeping us tethered to the dirty energy sources of yesterday, special interests, and polluter corporations won’t give us the future that we deserve.

“The representatives in the House who are pushing this agenda should come up with a way to begin moving us forward, not backward, or they risk the American public seeing right through their actions to the big-polluter corporate interests that motivate them.”