Sen. Carper Opposes Murkowski Proposal To Overturn EPA Global Warming Endangerment Finding

WASHINGTON – Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) issued the following statement today in response to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) resolution to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) global warming endangerment finding.

 

Sen. Carper said: “I strongly oppose Sen. Murkowski’s resolution to overturn the EPA endangerment finding because the science about global warming is clear: Greenhouse gases endanger public health.

 

“The EPA endangerment finding was issued in response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling and was based on thousands of peer-reviewed studies that have been published over the past decades.

 

“For example, climate change is expected to worsen regional ground-level ozone pollution which I have been fighting throughout my career in the Senate. We have seen how exposure to ground-level ozone can cause respiratory illness, long-term lung tissue damage and death.

 

“Sen. Murkowski’s resolution would overturn science that the Supreme Court, states and our leading scientists agree is sound.

 

“Now is not the time to question these findings. Now is not the time to delay. Now is the time for productive debate on how the United States can lead the clean energy revolution.

 

“Furthermore, if Congress does not like the tools the EPA has to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, then it is time for us to roll up our sleeves and pass meaningful climate change legislation this year.”

 

The EPA finalized its endangerment finding for six greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. The finding states that current and projected emissions of these six greenhouse gases endanger the health and wellbeing of current and future generations. Consequently, the EPA determined it must regulate these pollutants under the Clean Air Act.