1 p.m. EDT Telepresser: Conference ID: 41865683, Dial-in: (888) 228 9795
CONTACT: Josh Dorner, 202.675.2384
EPA’s Continued Defiance of High Court Ruling Challenged
Bush Administration Leaves Behind Wake of Broken Promises, Willful Inaction
One Year After Landmark Supreme Court Decision Demands Action on Warming
Washington, D.C.--Exactly one year ago today the Supreme Court handed down a watershed decision in the case of Massachusetts v. EPA. Today the Sierra Club, more than a dozen cities and states, and numerous other environmental groups began legal proceedings in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to stop defying the Supreme Court. The new proceedings come after months of warning from the petitioners that continued inaction would not be tolerated. Unfortunately, EPA chose not only to continue to ignore the High Court’s ruling, but instead proposed an alternative course that had been advocated by the Heritage Foundation, industry, and other special interests--a course of action explicitly rejected by the High Court in its ruling.
EPA’s recent decisions on a variety of issues related to this case and other global warming issues are the subject of several lawsuits and investigations by no fewer than three Congressional committees. EPA documents in this case are expected to be subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming shortly after today’s court filings.
Statement of David Bookbinder, Sierra Club Chief Climate Counsel
"While EPA has spent seven years finding new and creative ways to delay, obfuscate, deceive, block action in the states, and otherwise refuse to take action on global warming, it seems it took them only a week to do what was demanded by the Heritage Foundation and other special interests. This latest provocation, combined with a nearly decade-long trail of broken promises from President Bush on down the line, left us with no other choice but to take EPA back to Court.
"EPA threw the kitchen sink at the Supreme Court, lost, and has now proved that they’re willing to ignore even the highest court in the land in order to protect their friends in industry. While this administration has done everything possible to make a mockery of the rule of law in this country, it’s still stunning that they refuse to yield even to the High Court.
"It’s unfortunate that Stephen Johnson has chosen to sacrifice his three decades at EPA in order to help rearrange the deck chairs as this administration sinks further into irrelevance. If he is unwilling or unable to stand up and do to what the law--and now the Supreme Court--has ordered him to do, he should step aside in favor of someone who is."
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Today’s mandamus petition, filed with the D.C. Circuit, can be found HERE.
A complete backgrounder on Mass. v. EPA, from 1998 through today’s legal action is HERE.
Petitioners’ January 23, 2008 letter to EPA warning of further legal action is HERE.
EPA’s February 27, 2008 response to petitioners is HERE.
1 p.m. EDT Telepresser: Conference ID: 41865683, Dial-in: (888) 228 9795
Speakers:
Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General of California
James Milkey, Chief of Environmental Protection, Massachusetts Attorney General's Office
David Bookbinder, Sierra Club Chief Climate Counsel
Joe Mendelson, Legal Director, International Center for Technology Assessment
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