In response to Congress’ House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently released carbon standards, Evergreen Action Senior Power Sector Policy Lead Charles Harper released the following statement:

“It’s no surprise that House Republicans are doing what they always do: attacking the legitimacy of any action that ramps down fossil-fueled pollution simply because it would inconvenience their Big Oil buddies. Republicans used today’s Energy and Commerce Committee hearing to spew climate denialism, dub climate action as ‘immoral,’ and whine that their fossil fuel cronies might no longer be able to emit climate pollution without limit. They continued (falsely) claiming that the agency doesn’t have authority to enact these rules—when, in fact, EPA is mandated to take action to protect Americans’ health and welfare.

“Republicans continue to prove just how out of touch they are. The reality is, these standards use a traditional inside-the-fenceline strategy similar to dozens of existing regulations that have been used to protect Americans from harmful air pollutants for decades and have had absolutely zero impact on reliability. And beyond that, there was no mention by the GOP that under these new standards, states have flexibility to comply in the way that best serves the unique situation and concerns of their state.

“The carbon standards released by EPA provide our best chance yet at slashing pollution in one of the most polluting sectors of our economy—the power sector. But because Republicans in the House are beholden to the interests of their oil and gas donors, they are stooping to new lows to mislead the public about these common-sense standards.”

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